


These are our Nights

by Rehlia



Series: These Days Series [4]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Additional Warnings in the End Notes, Adopted Children, Background Character Death, Claustrophobia, Communal Child Rearing, Exploration, Families of Choice, Family Dynamics, Fluff and Angst, Homelessness, Light Angst, Monster Community Dynamics, Multi, Orphans, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Platonic Relationships, Pre-Undertale, Prequel, Rating May Change, Resets, Sibling Bonding, Slice of Life, Some Plot, Underground, Worldbuilding, character exploration, death aftermath, some body horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-05-25 15:55:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14980511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehlia/pseuds/Rehlia
Summary: Life in the Underground is its own thing - sometimes happy and sometimes sad, but always something that they're in together. And in the end, that's what counts.A series of stories about the banishment of monsters, building an existence out of nothing, and daily life in the Underground.Technically a prequel to "These are our Days" but it's entirely possible to understand one without the other.





	1. Banishment

**Author's Note:**

> Here we are again folks :D Or if you're new here, hi! It's the anniversary of posting the first chapter of These are our Days and that means it's prequel time! The prequel uses the same headcanons and characterisations I use in These are our Days, but it's completely possible to read this fic without having read the other one and vice versa.   
> I'm not sure what rating to give this yet but I'm not one to shy away from heavy/naughty themes so I'm erring on the side of caution and going with M for now. It might change in the future, so please keep that in mind. Update schedule is tentatively every two weeks. 
> 
> Also, this will be told out of order - we'll start with the monster's banishment and there's a plotline there about their slow carving out an existence under the mountain, but it's going to be interspaced with chapters about the main UT cast and a variety of side characters shortly before the canon game. 
> 
> I hope you have fun with this story!
> 
> [My tumblr](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)

“We surrender,” Asgore declared, his heavy voice ringing clear over the wide open field where the final moments of the war had been fought. 

His soul clenched with the pain of it, but he knew it had to be done. The ultimatum had been clear; surrender, or the war will be fought until every last monster is dead. And they had already been losing. It was the reason he had initially hesitated at all. Why offer surrender to the losing side? He wanted to believe the humans were showing them mercy, but he had been embittered by the brutality of the war, by hearing that the mages had telepathically communicated their plans so that the war would span the whole world. That last bit was why he had agreed despite his worry that it might just be another trap. What choice did they have? They were facing extinction if this went on. 

He could hear his own tribe behind him, sobbing at their fate, the terrified screams of the children as they stared at the dust of their fathers and mothers, of their siblings and other relatives. He clenched his trident harder, trying to soothe the heated rage broiling inside of him at the sound. He had alway been slow to anger, but once his temper rose it was often devastating, and the shadows on the soul he had gained over the course of the short war didn't help him keep a cool head. 

Toriel stepped closer to him, her head held high as she looked down at the humans in front of them. Her presence soothed him, but only a little. 

He was scared for her fate. 

Even knowing how strong she was, how clever, how experienced - how could he not worry for the great love of his life? He was a king and should not say or think these things but she, she was _everything_ to him, more than duty and people and anything else. He could not imagine loving anyone or anything more. Perhaps if they had children… but he could not think of that now. 

The humans were conferring. 

There would be terms of course, and he could only hope they would be merciful. Please, fate, stars, gods, whatever it was that humans normally prayed to, let them be merciful. If not to him then at least to his people. At least to the young ones… 

They turned to him and he braced himself. 

“The time of monsters is over,” the mage declared, the one who lead the others thanks to their indescribable power. “This world belongs to us now. There is no more place for you here. Too long you have mislead us about the thievery and threat you pose to our souls.”

Asgore clenched his teeth, biting back the reply he so dearly wanted to spit out. Monsters had been here before humans had ever awakened to consciousness. How dare they claim this world for their own?

“However,” the mage continued, “we have decided to grant you mercy for your surrender. A last resort for your people.”

Asgore didn't believe in this mercy until he saw it, and from the sounds of it, the monsters behind him were similarly skeptical. In front of him, the human mage raised their hands. The other mages began chanting in the back, a droning hum that quickly filled with power. He could feel a connection in their magic, reaching out to something far away, but he couldn't figure out what it was supposed to do. 

Light began to build around the leading mage, brilliantly white and with hints of colour at the edges. 

“Monsters!” the human mage called, making Asgore take half a step back subconsciously. Their voice was loud, layered with the voices of others and ringing with power. Now he he understood the connection the other mages were building. They were reaching out to other mages for this spell. What were they doing?!

“Monsters, hear your fate!” the mage shouted, and the echoes of those voices resonated throughout Asgore's body, touching something deep inside of him. Touching his very soul. “Monsters, we banish you! From this day on, you shall not set a single step on this earth! We banish you! To the end of the world, underneath the ground, into the realm of faerie and goblins and devils! We banish you! May you and your ilk be forgotten, legends and nightmares of times long past! We banish you, with our power you shall be held at the cursed place beyond human knowledge! We banish you with our power, and it shall be only by that same power that you might be released once more! We banish you!”

The blinding light which had been gathering around the mage exploded outwards and wrapped itself around Asgore's body. He could feel himself scream although he was incapable of hearing it, the sound swallowed by the greater roar of magic that was working its power on him. 

He became shapeless and that's when he truly began to feel scared. 

They promised mercy!

His body wasn't coherent anymore but they promised mercy, they lied, they _lied he should have expected this_...

He could feel Toriel with him. He could feel the others there, the monsters of his current immediate clan and more, so many more, monsters from everywhere in the world carried by the power of human soul magic. There were… seven of them. Seven human mages were weaving this spell, supported by others, but they were the ones who counted. They were distinct now that he was trapped in their spell, he could feel them clearly as their magic took hold of him. Seven human souls in the seven primary colours. 

Their power pushed him and the other monsters closely together, the light of the magic weaving around them before they took off. 

Asgore suddenly felt himself flying, carried by the human's magic. He and all the other monsters rushed forwards like a shooting star, the world a blur of light and colour and the roar of wind and magic around them. 

To the end of the world… 

He panicked as he thought of the vast ocean and the lands of ice. Was this where they would be sent? 

They were _sent_ somewhere and he didn’t know where.

They were descending, it was all happening so fast. 

With a resonating boom they crashed into something solid, the heat and force of the magic that carried them carving a hole into whatever it was they hit. On and on they went, winding left and right as they met resistance, until finally they fell into a hollow and the magic that carried them resonated outwards, away from them, leaving them to lie there like stranded fish. 

He heard another thundering sound further away and then… 

Silence. 

Heavy, pressuring silence, that lasted for moments until there was a collective scream. That went on for longer than the silence. 

Asgore sat up in confusion. He couldn't see, why was it so dark?

Carefully, he called on his magic, a small wisp of fire flickering to life in his paws. It illuminated his body and some of his surroundings. Next to him, Toriel was doing the same thing, and he could see more and more spots of light awaken in the darkness as the fire elementals and pyropes and other monsters who could create light projected their illumination outwards. With that, the screams slowly died down. 

Instead, there was yet another silence as monsterkind collectively held its breath. 

Asgore was the first to stand up. He could feel the multitude of eyes on him. There were too many monsters here for all to get a clear look at him he thought, but that didn't matter. Enough of them saw him, and were soothed by the sight of him, their king standing and doing something, his queen at his side. It means they wouldn't have to, that they could rely on the royal couple to lead them still. 

Toriel and he moved in tandem, shooting some small fire bullets upwards to confirm a suspicion that Asgore thought was building in both of them. 

The fire hit rock, far in the distance. 

To the end of the world, underneath the ground... into the realm of faerie and goblins and devils. 

They have been banished into a cave. At least it looked stable enough not to cave in on them. 

With that confirmed, he moved on to the next step, working down a list of important things to go over automatically. 

“Is anybody hurt?” he called out as loud as he could, his voice booming and echoing from the cave walls. This must have been a very large cave from the sounds of it. “Please check those closest to you, heal them if necessary and possible, and make sure that nobody is missing! Report to your clan leaders if you can. I expect the clan leaders to report to me as soon as possible!”

There was a flurry of movement as the monsters began to carry out his order, passing on the message for those who might not have heard. He and Toriel helped with checking over the monsters in their vicinity, ensuring that the clan they had been living with for the past decades was accounted for and healthy. That was the easy part. When the reports came in from the other clan leaders it got much more difficult. There were indeed many more monsters here than those who had surrounded him when he surrendered. The humans had been thorough in picking their strongest mages from all over the world, binding their magic into one big spell to get rid of all the monsters at once like that. 

But… some monsters did seem to be missing, and as things stood it was hard to tell why. The spell had been enormous and it wasn't out of the question that some might not have survived such an outpouring of energy. Others might have dusted upon waking in the dark, not able to take the intense fear on top of the hopelessness from losing the war. Or some might simply not have been affected by the spell at all, due to their size or because they had defences against human magic or for other reasons. He didn't know and there was no way to confirm any of these theories. 

And that wasn't even taking the most glaring issue into account yet. 

There seemed to be, at least in his careful estimate, several hundred thousand monsters in this cavern. Packed tightly together, they filled all the available space as far as he could make out in the darkness. That was a _lot_ less than what he knew the latest counting to be, but then the latest counting had also been years and years ago and the war against the humans had been vicious. Hey had lost so many… 

Their numbers had always been low in comparison to the humans. Humans spread across the globe in millions and monsters struggled to catch up. But they had counted over five million too at least last time. 

So little when compared to the whole human population. 

Their little pockets of monster civilisation always blanched against the towns and cities and villages of humans. Humans were everywhere and impossible to get rid of. Almost like vermin. He didn't like thinking of them like that usually, but he felt less than charitable towards them now. 

The war had been a farce. Humans, with their stronger bodies, were already at an advantage. But with the numbers skewed like that, it was even worse. It hadn’t been a war, it had been a massacre. Asgore could still see the dust fall when he closed his eyes, the air suffused with it on the so called battlefield. He had fought back valiantly and killed many humans, and injured many more. So had other monsters. But on the whole, against a coordinated attack like this one, they had been helpless. 

Whether it was the result of the war, the result of the spell not taking all monsters with it, or any combination of factors that he could think of, the result was the same. They were diminished in their numbers. Families had been torn apart, friends were missing, neighbours and acquaintances unaccounted for. 

“What should we do now?” one of the clan leaders asked after the final report had been issued. The hundreds of clan leaders were crowding around him and Toriel, seeking just as much reassurance as the other monsters at their backs who tried to listen in as a desperate effort to help control their fear. Many more would not be able to hear them, would only be able to look towards the faint, flickering light of the scattered fires in the cave and hope for the best. 

He needed to confer with his wife. Go over his ideas and plans, listen to her wisdom, before they could take the next steps and properly plan for the immediate future, and hopefully for the long term as well. 

But the very next steps were clear. 

“We need to acquire knowledge about where exactly we are and what options we have,” he stated. “The exact size of this cavern, potential exits and tunnels leading out of it. Then we need to know what we have in terms of belongings and equipment, food and tools. Finally, we need to establish a support system for those dealing with losses in their families and other relationships. Go back to your clans and set them to these three tasks; exploration, accounting for our possessions, and social support. No monster is to leave this cavern yet, and those exploring should take greatest care to make sure they do not get lost or hurt. They should have those with fire magic light them torches to see by. If possible, we should also light torches so our fire magic users won’t exert themselves too much by lighting the darkness for the others.”

The other clan leaders scattered swiftly after he finished speaking, seemingly eager to carry out his orders. 

He knew they were glad to have something meaningful to do. 

He knew that giving them something meaningful to do was paramount. 

Keeping the people busy could help prevent them from falling down. 

There were still monsters close by, partially because they were seeking reassurance from his and Toriel’s presence, and partially because there simply wasn’t enough space to get away from each other. It made it difficult to truly speak to Toriel like he wished to. 

He pulled her close into a hug, allowing himself a small moment of relief that she was here at all, that they both had survived. 

“What will we do?” he whispered into her ear, silently enough that only she would hear him falter. 

“I do not know yet,” she replied as she held him close, a small tremble in her voice the only sign that she was just as fearful as he was. 

They held onto each other as they overlooked the population, shapes moving in the small spots of light provided by the few of them able to grant it, more moving in the shadows between. 

Darkness looming all around them.


	2. Safe and Sound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After the heaviness of the first chapter, have some childhood Undyne fluff :3 
> 
>  
> 
> [My tumblr](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)

“Over here!”

“Oh no! The human is coming!”

“The guards, call the guards!”

“Don't worry, I'm gonna protect you!”

“Our hero!”

“Ngaaaaaah!”

“Urrrgh! Bleeerrrgh! Death and dust!”

“We're safe!”

“Another soul for us!”

“Freedom!”

“Yeah!”

“Hey, you're supposed to be dead!”

Undyne giggled, still holding up the glowing blue rock that served as the soul. It felt rough and heavy, nothing like what she thought a true soul should be like, but that didn't matter at the moment. She won! Another soul for the monster kingdom!

Or at least she'd won the game, but that was almost as good.

“Now I shall lead the monsters to the surface!” she shouted, pumping the fist clutching the stone forwards. “The sky shall be ours!”

She had recently heard an older monster use ‘shall’ while reading a human book about knights and it was now her favourite new word. It sounded grown up and cool, and epic. 

“I can't, I gotta go home. It's time for dinner,” one of the kids she's playing with declined. They were a fish monster too, but instead of two legs like Undyne they had a long tail and fin. She thought they were called Fin, actually.

“No way!” Undyne whined. Stupid dinner time, ruining her fun. 

The other kids, a young Woshua and a slightly older girl with a clam for her head, unfortunately all agreed. She had kind of forgotten to ask for their names.

“Do you wanna come over again?” Fin asked her. “I think my parents are gonna make seaweed salad today.”

She liked seaweed salad, that was true. But… 

“Nah, I'm busy. I gotta patrol Waterfall for humans!” Undyne declared. 

“Oh, ok. See you tomorrow then?”

“Yeah!!”

“Bye!”

Undyne turned immediately when the others started their way home, and walked into the opposite direction. 

Stupid, stupid dinnertime. Who cared about time anyway? It was always dark in Waterfall. So it wasn't as if it made a big difference what got done when. A lot of monsters didn't even care. But Fin’s parents insisted on doing it like in the capital… she didn't want to do it like that. She ate when she felt like it. Slept when she felt like it. She was free to do that. There was nobody left to really tell her how to live her life. 

Fine then, let the others be babies with their dinnertimes! She was different! She had a job to do! She wasn't a baby anymore! She was almost fourteen! For some monsters that meant they were grown up already and she totally belonged to that category! Even though her teachers always put her with the four and five year old monsters who were short like her… they said she ages slowly. Pff. They just didn't understand a thing! She was a big girl. She lived alone and all that.

Squaring her shoulders, Undyne marched faster, throwing glances left and right. Watching for humans. 

Waterfall was as quiet as it got. It was murky and dim, only the glow of crystals and plants and water giving some light. She could hear the rush of the falls and the split of water lapping against the riverbanks. The patter of rain in some corridors. Echo Flowers were whispering to each other, or maybe it was monsters talking. It could be hard to tell. When she opened her mouth wide enough, she could taste the richness of the wet earth and the minerals of the cave walls and the stuffiness of the air. She couldn't feel any vibrations under her feet. 

That was all the senses she could use to check her environment. Other monsters also talked about smell, but like most fish monsters she didn't have a nose. It was a weird thought. A whole extra hole in the head to breathe and it could detect something else that was a little like taste but not? Undyne thought it sounded ridiculous. She could do just fine without that. 

She wandered a bit more. 

Met a temmie among the grass, but left it because it kept calling her cute and she didn't like it. Walked over some flower seed bridges and wooden bridges. Checked out some of the secret caves she had found. Sat down in some patch of grass to be on lookout.

This was… boring. 

Patrolling for humans should be more fun. Why hadn't she found a human yet? What was taking it so long? She had already gone and patrolled a few times before and surely it couldn't take _that_ long for a human to fall? 

With a frustrated huff, she got up and left the cluster of grass behind her. This wasn't fun anymore. She wished the other kids were still here so she could play with them, but they were probably already long finished with dinner and fast asleep. 

Come to think of it, she felt hungry too now. 

Where to go? 

She picked out one of the larger corridors and followed it. She knew these caves well thanks to her games with the other children, constantly running around and exploring. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. 

On an intersection of three rough corridors, a shop had been cut into a wall. From the outside, it had been made to look like a normal entrance, a door next to a low window, with a counter at the window. Inside it seemed to be much bigger. An old monster was moving inside, looking like a turtle. 

The Hammer of Justice. 

She could just see him in his alcove if she leaned forwards a little. Depending on the angle, she wouldn’t see him at all, and neither would he be able to see her in turn. 

Undyne felt as though her soul might begin vibrating at any second. It was time. Time to prove herself again! She had already done this several times before, but she wasn’t stupid! She knew it was still a challenge. One she took seriously. 

Waiting until his back was turned, she slid around the corner and hurried down the corridor. It had taken her a bit before she figured out how to move quietly with her naked feet. Usually the webbed parts would be loud if she ran. But she managed anyway. In no time at all, she reached the alcove and ducked under the part of the counter that jutted out a little from it. Holding her breath, she waited there. She could hear him. Moving things around. Humming to himself in his creaky voice. 

Success!

If he had noticed her, he would have talked to her or asked her what she was doing. But he didn't. So he hadn't noticed. 

She suppressed a giggle. This wasn't the first time she had snuck up on him. She was too good!

Careful now though. 

Her fins twitched as she listened to the old turtle putter around in his shop. Only when she could hear him move away from the counter did she dare to quickly reach up with her hand and snatch a crabapple from the counter. She didn't eat it yet of course, that would be too noisy. Instead she put it into her inventory. The turtle was still humming, still not close, so she did it again. 

Two crabapples in her inventory, three… 

“Are you done soon?” 

She flinched, and the latest crabapple rolled out of her fingers, hitting the ground with a soft thud. 

When she looked up, the face of the old turtle was right above her. Leaning over the counter to see her underneath. Looking right into her eyes. 

She tried to jump up and run, but he had her at the neck before she could. 

It wasn't as painful as she thought it would be. His hold was gentle. 

“Lemme go!” she yelled anyway. 

“So you're hungry, huh?” he asked, ignoring her. 

Lifted her easily up and over the counter, into his shop. She felt ashamed when she started to shiver a little. The Hammer had caught her stealing… she swallowed heavily. What kind of punishment would she get? Slavery? Torture??? He had hunted humans, who knew what kind of terrible methods he had learned from them. 

“Empty your inventory,” he told her. 

She didn't dare to resist and did as he told. 

“Three crabapples. Plus one that fell to the floor. We should pick that one up. Wasting food is bad, hm?” 

He didn't wait for her reply, simply carried her out to the corridor and slowly picked up the crabapple. His joints creaked and he huffed with every movement. 

“There we go,” he said, looking at the crabapple from all sides. “Just a small dent and some dirt. If we wash it, it's good to eat still.”

His friendly and conversational tone confused her. Was he trying to lull her into and sense of safety?!

“So. What's a little urchin like you doing stealing four crabapples from this old turtle?” he asked as he carried her back into the shop. 

“I'm no little urchin!” she protested. “I'm fourteen! Almost!”

“Wah ha ha! Almost fourteen, huh? And a fish monster. You're even younger than I thought, tadpole.”

Undyne gasped in deepest offence. She was no tadpole! 

“Doesn't answer my question though.” The old turtle looked down at her, having sat her on the counter of his shop again. 

“Was hungry,” Undyne mumbled, squirming. 

“I guessed as much,” the Hammer chuckled. “So, you got no one taking care of you?”

“I take care of myself!” Undyne pouted. 

“Stealing isn't taking care of yourself,” the old turtle told her. His voice was softer than she expected. “Stealing means living while making things worse for someone else. Maybe even endangering them.”

Undyne looked up sharply at that. 

“But you're the Hammer of Justice!” she protested. “Nothing can harm you!”

“Wah ha ha! Is that so? I should tell that to all the humans who ever took some of my HP,” he laughed. “No, tadpole. Even I can be hurt.”

“I'm no tadpole! I'm Undyne!” she protested. 

“Then I'm Gerson,” he told her with a grin. “Deal?”

“...deal,” Undyne said after thinking about it for a second. Being able to call her hero by his first name was pretty cool. 

“Anyhoo, Undyne. You know food can be scarce underground, don't you?” Gerson asked. 

“What's scarce?”

“Rare. Not plentiful. There's little of it.”

“Oh. Yeah. But you have a lot!” Undyne protested.

“I buy a lot because I run a shop. To sell it on so monsters here don't have to go all the way to the farms to get it. If I don't get paid, I can't afford running my shop anymore. Then I can't keep living here,” Gerson explained. 

“Oh…” Undyne looked down at her feet. That was bad. She didn't want him to go away. 

“And for other monsters, they might just not lose their shops. They might not be able to eat at all anymore. They might fall down, or… worse.”

“But… I…” 

Her words petered out. She hadn't thought about it like that. That her actions could have this effect. She had only thought about proving her strength so she could one day defeat a human and become a hero. Like the turtle in front of her. Learning that her actions were not heroic at all hurt. Falling down… thinking about that still hurt.

“We don't have a lot. So we have to share and look out for each other. All of us. If we don't, we're no better than humans,” Gerson explained. 

“I'm not like that!” She angrily wiped her arm over her eyes, trying to convince herself she wasn't crying. 

Gerson reached up to her head and messed up her hair, roughly petting her. 

“Hey!” 

“I know you’re not a bad kid,” he said. “But you have to stop this. Now, how about I take these crabapples and show you how to cook with them.”

“Cooking is boring,” she dared to protest, even though it was far less of a punishment than she had expected. 

“Not if you do it right,” Gerson said with a wink. “How about some explosions?” 

Her fins twitched. That sounded a lot better than the kind of cooking she knew. 

“Real explosions?” she wanted to clarify. 

“Real ones. And you get to eat the crabapples too at the end.” 

“Deal!!” she shouted, making him laugh again. 

“Come here then,” he told her and lifted her off the counter. He lowered a shutter down on his counter and closed the door to his shop, after hanging a sign up on it. Then he took her to the back. 

The shop was only one room with a lot of sparkly stones on the walls and ceiling, and the Delta Rune on one wall. But there was a door to the back and here the cave was a lot bigger. She could see a room full of boxes and bottles and bags, probably storage. Another short corridor led to a room with a bed, another showed kitchen appliances. That was where he took her. There were a few wooden boxes here too, and she perched on one while he put the crabapples on the kitchen counter and gathered a knife, a pot and some other stuff. 

“First,” Gerson explained, “You have to cut off the stems. With a big chop.”

“Like beheading your enemy!” Undyne shouted. 

“Exactly!”

The knife came down in a wide arc, separating the stem from the fruit. 

“Now, we have to mash them into a pulp…”

Undyne laughed wildly as Gerson summoned several of his famed hammer bullets, pounding down on the crabapples. The kitchen counter gained a few more dents and cracks and apple pulp splattered everywhere. Cooking the apples into sauce did indeed involve several real explosions and when Undyne ultimately sat on the crate with a bowl of hot crabapple puree in her lap, that was all she cared about. The odd taste and the seeds in the puree didn't bother her. She finished the entire thing within minutes. 

“That was awesome!!”

“Wah ha ha! Nice to find someone who appreciates my cooking!” Gerson laughed. He had sat down next to her with his own bowl.

Who wouldn't? Undyne didn't get how anyone might not appreciate something so amazing. 

“Anyhoo, lunch break’s over. I have to open my shop again for a bit.”

“What about me?” Undyne asked. 

“You can stay if you want. Or not. You won't steal anymore, correct?” Gerson gave her a stern look. Undyne quickly shook her head, fast enough to send her hair whipping around her. “Good. Then my job is done.”

Gerson got up and put their bowls away. Then he walked back to his shop. She heard him open the shutter on the counter and the door again, soon followed by the sounds he had made before. Moving around, sorting wares, humming. A customer seemed to come by and they talked. 

It felt… familiar. But it didn’t hurt. A frown spread on her forehead when she listened inside of herself. These familiar sounds had been why she had avoided accompanying the other kids to their meals or sleepovers. But here it was fine for some reason. She felt fine. 

Perhaps she could stay a _little_ while. Only long enough to allow the magic from her meal to settle properly. Rest a little, and then she would be off again… 

When Gerson returned barely ten minutes later he found Undyne exactly where he left her, curled up on the crate she had eaten on. 

She didn’t wake up when he carried her to bed.


	3. Amnesia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continuing with childhood fluff, only this time it's babybones! Perhaps not quite as fluffy as the last one though, due to their circumstances.  
> When you erase a constant, something has to realign itself...
> 
>  
> 
> [My tumblr](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)

Sans was playing with Papyrus when it happened. 

One moment he helped his brother stack colourful blocks on top of each other, the next they both stilled. 

What… 

The question left his mind before it could fully form. It wasn't important, and so he forgot it. The confusion remained though. 

He stared at his hands, all the delicate bones and how they slotted together. Seemed normal. He looked at Papyrus, just over two years old and already back to playing, eager and happy. Seemed normal too. The blocks were normal, their room with the low bed and the books and the soft toys and the colourful murals were normal. Their shirts and shorts were normal. The door to the rest of the lab was normal. 

It was the two of them, and… and that's… that's how it had always been. 

Yeah. 

Just him and Papyrus, living down here in the empty laboratory rooms by themselves. Playing and exploring and testing themselves, for reasons he couldn't quite remember, which meant it wasn't important and so he forgot about it immediately. 

He went back to playing with Papyrus, who was looking at him expectantly now that he had stopped participating in the game. They stacked blocks for a while longer. It wasn't the most mentally engaging activity but it was one where Sans didn't have to talk and it made Papyrus happy, which meant it made Sans happy too. For a while, anyway.

Sans felt… Sans felt as if he was waiting for something. 

Something… 

_Not important._

Oh, right. It was time for Papyrus to go to bed. He stood and picked his brother up, who allowed himself to be carried without protest. Sans carried him over to bed and tucked him in, leaning over to give his baby brother a nuzzle. 

“g’nigh,” he mumbled, knowing that he was slurring the sounds too much. His eye lights automatically shifted. Somehow he expected a comment on that, but of course nothing came. Why was he thinking like this?

Papyrus began to cry. 

Sans wasn't sure why, before remembering he still needed his best story. Immediately, he looked around. 

For what…?

For the book, of course. 

Of course. 

He took the book from where it sits next to the bed and gets comfortable next to his brother. Getting close, and cuddling him, to make sure he’d feel better and knew there was no need to cry. First to read was the title. Ugh. He squinted and tested out th sounds carefully as he read them. 

“pee… ka-boo,” Sans read, “with. f-lu-ff-y… bun-ny.” 

This was hard. Why was this so hard? Because he wasn't good at reading, because didn't have a lot of experience with it yet, because he was still trying to improve talking, never mind reading. Because he hadn’t read or spoken for a long, long time, because it had been _dark_... the memories were vague and eluded him as soon as he thought about them. But he had also always been the one to read to Papyrus. The discrepancy gave him a headache, and then it was gone because it wasn't important. 

He kept going. Struggled his way through the entire book, and felt grateful that it was relatively short. At the end of it, Papyrus was asleep. Sans could have stayed up but the effort of reading left him tired, so he put his arms around his brother and cuddled him close, allowing himself to drift off as well. 

He woke up when he felt Papyrus squirm in his arms. His brother was awake much faster than him, and was already trying to get out of bed. He was babbling too.

“WAN FOOD!” he exclaimed, jumping on the bed a little.

“huh?” Sans still felt sluggish and tired, and didn’t appreciate the jostling motions right next to his skull. 

“FOOD! WAN FOOD!”

“you wan’ food?”

“YESH!”

Oh. Right.

He'd have to get food for his brother. 

Since they lived alone here, and he was the older brother, that was his task. He had always been the one to provide for them, logically, even though he couldn't remember doing that for some reason. Not important. Much more importantly; where would he get food now? 

“uh… ok.”

With a small groan, he climbed out of bed. He didn't want to get up yet. But it was clear that if he didn't, Papyrus would and then wander off by himself. That didn't seem like a good idea somehow. Rubbing his eyes, he helped Papyrus out and set his brother up with some toys and a puzzle. 

Sans eyed the door to their room and then his brother again. Papyrus was playing peacefully for now, but Sans knew he could easily be distracted if he became more hungry. What if he wandered off? 

How had he done this up until now? 

He didn't know. All he knew was that he had to do it and at the same time prevent his brother from wandering off by himself. Should he take him along? He didn't like that thought much either considering he didn't even know where he'd get their food from. 

And _why_ couldn't he remember that? 

Frustration welled up in his soul as he stood there, internally debating what to do. He hated this. He felt overwhelmed and he wanted for someone to come and help him, even though he knew there was nobody. The longer he watched his little brother though, the more he realized that the idea of leaving his baby bro galled him. He was tempted to leave in his pj's, but since he didn't know where or how far he'd have to go to find food he got dressed after all. Then he put Papyrus in some proper clothes too. 

“ok. le’s go ‘n get food,” he said once they were done. 

“WAN PLAY!” 

“we gotta get food,” he insisted. 

“NO! WAN PLAY NOW!” 

Papyrus clutched his toys to his sternum, looking up at Sans with eye sockets that were half stubborn and half pleading. It was hard to say no to that. But Sans also knew Papyrus well enough to foresee that his little brother might get grumpy if he went too long without breakfast. And that wasn’t fun. Papyrus could get really loud really fast. 

“how’s you take a toy?” he offered, trying to think about a solution where he wouldn’t have to argue or put his foot down. 

“TAKE ON?”

“yeah. take it ‘n you can play ‘long the way.” 

Papyrus visibly thought about it, scrunching up his little face in what looked like a big effort. 

“YESH!” 

Whew. Crisis averted. Papyrus chose the book they read yesterday. With that, they were ready to go. 

Sans reached up and opened the door, closing it neatly behind him once they were outside the room. They were in a long corridor with several doors lining it. All of them made his head hurt when he looked at them, because they weren't important and it was hard to ignore them when they were so… there. To the right at the end of the corridor, there was a large glass door with a laboratory visible behind it. Looking that way made his head hurt even more, so Sans looked into the other direction instead. There was another door at the end of the corridor in this direction, the only other door he could see. He decided to take that one immediately. It was a good door.

He stepped through and walked through another corridor with his brother in tow. The lighting here was dim. Emergency lighting, Sans thought, although he couldn't say why or how he knew that. He kept walking while clutching his brother’s hand, taking care to memorise his surroundings, the number of screens at the wall or the unusual machine they passed, in order to orient himself. 

He found mostly empty rooms with machines that he didn't know, but there was also a bathroom, a room with refrigerators, a room with many beds… and finally, a room that contained something he recognised as food. He was glad, Papyrus had begun whining from the long walk and his hunger already. 

“ok. ‘s ok, pap. jus’ a sec,” he mumbled, looking up at the glass panel, trying to figure out how this would work. 

The contraption in front if him was a large rectangle with a see through front. Inside behind the glass, there were several shelves. On the shelves were colourful packages held in place by metal spirals. On the side there was a pad with numbers and on the bottom there was an open slid. That was the only opening to the rectangle he could see. How was he supposed to get the packages out? He was sure he had eaten from these packages before and knew they contained delicious, salty potato chisps. 

“puzzle,” he told Papyrus, pointing at the rectangle. That must be it after all, there was no other reason why there was no obvious way to get the food out of there. They'd have to solve it, and then they'd be rewarded with food. 

“PUZZ,” Papyrus repeated, smiling excitedly. It was cute but it also sounded weird how he left the whole latter part of the word out, Sans noticed. Hmmmm.

“yeah, a puzzle,” Sans said, taking more care this time to pronounce everything correctly. Papyrus had nobody but him. He should learn to speak correctly instead of suffering the same speech issues Sans was dealing with. He had to try harder for his brother. 

But first, food. He looked at the rectangular puzzle machine from all angles, trying to figure out the mechanism. It was likely that the number pad had something to do with it, he assumed. Surely it couldn't be as easy as simply putting in the right number? But where would he get the code? It could also be a distraction while the solution was something simpler, something so obvious he wouldn't immediately think about it. That was another common type of puzzle. 

His eyes wandered down to the slit at the bottom. He could see that he wouldn't be able to simply reach in there and grab what he wanted. The distance from the slit to the first shelf was too far and the angle was weird. 

But.

He summoned a long, thin bone, shaped like a femur. If he tilted it sideways, he could fit it into the slit and push it upwards towards the shelves with the packages. Wriggle it around a bit too loosen a package from the metal screw and… 

The chisps package fell down with a crinkling sound and Sans laughed in triumph. 

“there ya go!” 

“GO GO!” Papyrus repeated, clapping his hands together, beaming at Sans. He felt oddly proud to have his baby bro look at him like that. 

It had been so simple after all. All he'd had to do was use his magic, making use of his bullets. He grabbed the package and opened it, offering it to his little brother who descended upon the prize like he was feral. 

“MMMMMH!!”

“good?” 

“MMMMMMH!!”

“hehe.”

Sans left him to it and wriggled another package out for himself, then sat down next to his brother. The chisps were a pleasant breakfast, their strong salty taste tingling against his palate while they dissolved into his magic. They gave him a decent amount of energy too, though he knew they wouldn't last for long. 

That made him think about other food. 

They clearly couldn't live off these chisps alone, so he'd have to look around for different food sources for later. If only he could remember where he'd gotten food from before. Why couldn't he remember? He didn't want to have to search the laboratory completely every time he was hungry; he wanted to get the search over with now before they returned to their room. 

Huh. 

Their… room?

Where was that again?

Sans raised his hands to his skull, dropping the chisps bag as a violent headache began to pound on his skull. They'd had a room. And a lot of toys, and clothes and a bed and food and _someone who used to care for them_ \- 

It's not important. 

It's not important. 

_It's not important._

His headache spiked and then slowly receded, leaving a state of blankness in its wake as his thoughts settled into patterns that were new and yet had always existed that way.

They had always lived in the laboratory by themselves. 

Sans had always been forced to take care of his brother by scavenging for food and any other necessities. 

Sans had always had memory problems when it came to his earlier childhood. 

It was tiring, but that's what it was. 

Nothing unusual.

He sighed and picked up his bag of chisps. Just because he was tired and annoyed that was no reason to drop good food. It would give him the boost he'd need to search the rest of the laboratory for other food items. He had to, so Papyrus wouldn’t go hungry. 

He looked down at his baby brother while he finished his chisps. 

He may not remember much, of his childhood, or where they had come from, or their life here. But one thing he remembered clearly, and would always remember clearly. 

Sans loved his brother more than anything in the world, and he’d always take care of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings: amnesia, memory issues,


	4. Barrier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back immediately post-banishment :D 
> 
> [My tumblr](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)

They were moving up the corridor slowly, carefully, not sure what to expect. They weren’t alone of course; Gerson was accompanying them with some of his guards, just in case. Toriel and Asgore were carrying fire magic in their paws, lighting the way. 

In the flickering light, Toriel could clearly see the burn marks on the stone walls, the scrapes and molten pieces of rock that their fall here had caused. After exploring the grand cavern they had first found themselves in, monsters had reported this to be the entrance they had come from, based on these marks. The place where they crashed as they were brought here in blinding magic. True to Asgore’s first orders, no monster had ventured inside the corridor. 

But they had felt magic radiating from it, and reported accordingly. 

Toriel could feel it too now, a power so great that even though she was not directly in front of it yet, the tickle of it nearly made her fur rise. In combination with the flickering light barely pushing against the heavy darkness, the usual comfort of her fire faded and the effect was ominous instead. 

“Wait,” Gerson suddenly called to them. Everyone stopped, the soldiers and the two monarchs both, waiting and watching. Gerson was a young soldier, barely an adult, but his strength and bravery on the battlefield had earned him greatest respect. He seemed to have an innate sense for when he needed to attack and when to retreat, using his turtle shell and hammer bullet both to good effect in a fight. When he decided there was reason to pause, then there likely _was_ a good reason to pause. 

“Listen,” he told them, holding one of his muscular arms up. 

The muscles of Toriel’s ears twitched slightly as she strained her hearing forwards. It was still faint but… yes, she could hear it, too. There was a sound like someone, or something, breathing. Only at the same time, it didn’t sound like breath at all. Wind that was not wind. An unfamiliar and foreboding movement of air. On her fur though, she felt not even the slightest breeze. 

“What is it?” she whispered, wondering if it was a creature or something else. Hard to say, although she almost would prefer for it to be some sort of large and dangerous cave animal. Those at least she would know how to deal with. 

“Not sure yet,” Gerson grumbled. Even in the faint, unsteady light of the fire, she could see his serious expression. “Perhaps related to the magic though.”

“It feels like them,” Asgore pointed out, looking ahead with worry. “Even here, where we can’t see what it is yet.” 

“Let’s move on,” Toriel proposed, even though the situation felt so unsettling to her. She wanted to know what this was - having something concrete to worry about was far preferable to the current uncertainty. 

They took the last steps up the corridor, following it around another bend only to end up in a final, small chamber. 

Before them was… 

Toriel wasn’t sure how to describe it. She had never seen such a thing before in her considerably lengthy life. 

“What in… “ Gerson mumbles, visibly just as overwhelmed and confused as her. 

If she were to try, she would say it resembled a wall of magic, except it was completely different from any sort of magic she had seen before. The magic pulsed slowly, in synch with the strange sound in the air that they had heard in the corridor, shifting from black to white and back through a quick series of grey shades. The changes began on the edges of the room and centered at the exact point where they had first crashed into the mountain, forming something almost akin to a keyhole there. The entire construct was brimming with power, and just like Asgore had said she could feel the magic of the human mages from it, the remnants of soul energy and the intent behind the spell. Anger, disgust, hatred, haughtiness, triumph - they were all clear against her senses and fed her own rage at the humans. At the same time though, there was no intent to hurt. Only to banish, to lock away, to put a barrier between the two species that would not be undone unless the humans wished for it. 

“Well,” Asgore said, staring at the thing with wide eyes. He didn’t seem to know what else to say, which Toriel could understand. It left her speechless too. 

Carefully, she stepped forwards by herself, reaching out for what she perceived as the keyhole. Her paws pressed against the centrepoint without any ill effect towards her. She opened her senses wide and closed her eyes to concentrate, learning what she could about the spell. The negative intent made her want to curl away from it, but she pushed through. They had to know what they were dealing with. 

Casting her senses as deep into the magical barrier as she could, she felt the different soul colours that had contributed to its construction. While from the outside, the barrier looked white and black and grey, to her sense of magic every sound of air came with a shift of colour from red, to purple, to blue and aqua and green, to yellow and orange, and back to red again. They suffused the barrier in its entirety and formed and stabilised its magic. It was a strong spell, one that would hold up for years, decades, _millenia_ if necessary. 

But even powerful and lasting spells had weak points. 

She dove deeper, focused… 

Soul power was her only answer. 

It would take more than a single monster or human soul to even attempt to cross this barrier. There was a fluctuation there, possibilities she couldn't quite read. A collection of souls would be needed to break it. Seven souls had constructed it, and seven souls would be needed for its shattering. 

Now she understood the vicious triumph emanating from the spell. 

She removed her paws, opened her eyes, and gave the fluctuating black and white barrier a distasteful look. 

“What a miserable spell,” she said, a deep frown on her face. 

“I wish you would not have touched it so easily,” Asgore sighed. They exchanged brief glances; he knew it had been unlikely for her to get hurt and that she would have been able to take the passive damage if the spell had contained an intent to harm easily. But he hated the thought of seeing her in pain after the war they had just endured. This was reasonable. She apologised with her eyes. 

“What did you feel?” Gerson asked her. 

“It is a barrier,” she explained, “and a lasting one. The power of seven souls was used to construct it, and seven would be needed to break it. One soul alone would not be able to cross it, at least not from the inside, human or monster. A combination might be necessary. The soul power gives the spell endurance. Unless we break this spell, the barrier will hold us here indefinitely.” 

“So the only way to leave would be through more violence, leading to more war,” Gerson concluded with a sneer. “Humans…”

They all shared a moment of silent rage. 

“You said from the inside more than one soul would be necessary to cross this… barrier,” Asgore pondered. “But from the outside?”

“I am not sure,” she said. “It is not quite _meant_ to be crossed, so it is difficult to read the spell in that direction.”

Asgore gave the barrier another thoughtful look and the stepped forwards to touch it as well. Gerson too decided to try his hand at it, while Toriel and the other guards waited for them to conduct their own investigation of the spell. 

“I see,” Asgore said thoughtfully a short while later, stepping back. Gerson took a while longer, and said nothing when he concluded his own investigation, merely continuing to stare at the barrier with thoughtful eyes. 

“I suppose they would have wanted a failsafe,” Asgore mused. “If one of them falls in, there is a possibility for them to escape by taking monster souls to cross.”

This had not immediately occurred to Toriel, but it was logical. The humans had truly been thorough, and so she followed the implications to their logical end. 

“To fall, or to come looking?” she asked. “For now, they have banished us, and his barrier of theirs bears no intent to harm us. But do we know they did not leave this option open to them in case they change their minds later?”

“Everything is possible,” Gerson muttered. “Before last week I would've said it's unlikely since they already let us go. Now I'd say we can't trust anything we think we know about them.”

“Then it will be all the more important for us to prepare,” Asgore decided with a glance to her. She knew he was hoping for her to give him advice, that he trusted in her intelligence and wisdom just as she trusted in his charisma and ability to lead with kindness. 

“Let me think,” she said quietly. 

Here, away from the prying eyes of the general population, surrounded only by their guard captain and a few of his most trusted guards, she didn't have to pretend to know all the answers immediately. She could finally take a moment to think and admit that she wasn't infallible. It was a big relief. The cavern was too cramped; everyone kept staring at her and could hear everything she said. At some point, something would have to be done about that lack of space - but for now, she had to think about more immediate things. 

There were so many factors influencing their decisions for the future. She needed to account for them all. 

They had taken stock of what they had with them over the past day, which was precious little. Emergency rations from the war were in everyone's inventory as had been advised, but the premade food would only last them so long. Few of them had seeds on them. They would need to find food soon if they wanted to survive. Bugs and bats lived in the cave, but to do the unspeakable and consume the unwilling living… few monsters would be willing to commit such barbaric acts. That was for humans. 

Then, there was the issue of light. They didn't have that many monsters capable of fire magic, and those who could do it couldn't keep it up indefinitely. Their torches were already dwindling too, so the darkness was encroaching on them again. Toriel knew the population wouldn't fare well if they had no more light to guide them through the oppressive darkness of the mountain. Already, their hope was a fickle thing to sustain and she was very aware that they would most likely have someone falling down within the next day or so. 

An issue all of its own, really. 

Then there were the lack of privacy, the need for meaningful occupation, the desire for safety… 

They needed to settle and begin building and farming to sustain themselves, to give the people a safe place to stay, they needed to set up magical systems to give them more light in a more sustainable way. They needed the comforts of everyday life while they figured out how to deal with their sudden predicament. They needed somewhere that would nourish their bodies, minds and souls.

They needed a _home_. 

But this close to the barrier? 

No.

“We should not stay so close to it,” she finally nodded. The barrier unnerved her. “We need to fully explore this cave system in any case. We need to know how big it is, if there are resources for us to use, if there are dangers to us, if there are other exits we could use to flee. If there are no other exits, or if there are but they are covered by this barrier as well, then we need to find a safe place to fortify. Far enough away from the entrances to ensure no human will surprise us, somewhere that will give us as much cover as possible while still allowing us a degree of freedom and privacy, a place suitable for farming. Light and food are our most immediate and pressing needs, but shelter and safety are not far behind. We need to act quickly if we are to survive.”

“So you propose exploring the cavern and moving deeper,” Asgore concluded. “All of us, at once?”

“Of course we should send out scouts first,” she countered. “But yes, ideally I think we should move, all of us, as soon as possible, and explore along the way.”

“It will be difficult to protect so many when we all move as a group,” Gerson pointed out. “And they might need protection.”

“I fear for what might happen if we let only a few wander out alone,” Toriel admitted. “And besides, the cavern doesn't offer any soil or water. Our rations will only last so long and already the aquatic monsters have to be sustained by magic. This cannot go on for much longer.”

“Lingering also gives them too much time to think about how dire the situation really is,” Asgore said, nodding slowly as he came to see the truth in her words. “They need something productive to direct their focus to. Or they will fall. So many will likely fall regardless…”

He already looked to be grieving them. She instinctively wanted to protest, but in her soul, she knew he was right. She had thought the same thing just now, after all. They would try their best, but the hope that they would be able to save everyone clashed badly with the experience they had accumulated over the course of their long lives. There would probably be at least a few funerals in the coming days and weeks. 

“Right. Well. In that case, I should work on a plan for security while you handle the logistics,” Gerson grumbled. It seemed as though Asgore's grim prediction had won him over to their plan completely. 

“We should do it here,” Toriel suggested, weathering the disbelieving look she got from everyone else. “Even though it is not a comfortable feeling to be next to the barrier, it is currently the only place where we can speak freely, without worrying about holding back our words for the sake of the people.”

“Then let us hurry,” Asgore mumbled with an uneasy glance to the barrier. “For their sake… and our own.”

The last words were muttered even more quietly than the ones before, and they almost made Toriel laugh. It had been some time since Asgore last allowed himself to show weakness like this. During the war, he had tried to be strong for his people. It was a relief to see him like this again, and the brief impulse of laughter bubbling up inside her felt like a soothing balm to her otherwise heavy soul. It gave her hope. 

The war was still so fresh, their banishment only a day past. But she could still feel the need laugh at least. She _would_ laugh again in the future. 

Toriel held that thought close and let it drive her as they went over their plans for the future.


	5. Hope runs the Underground

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looking at some experiences of random normal monsters in the underground today... during a time of high emotion. A bit sad, fair warning. 
> 
> [My tumblr](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)

“Did you hear?”

“It can't be true.”

“The guard announced it.”

“Have the thrones spoken yet?”

“They say it happened at night…”

“I don't believe it.”

“Weren't they sick?”

“That's why it happened.”

“It doesn't make sense.”

“So young, how terrible.”

“It must be wrong.”

“I feel for them.”

“I wish they would make an official statement…”

Wolfhild hurried through the snow, her ears twitching as she tried to ignore the murmurs surrounding her. Snowdin Town was alive with them right now, as was the rest of the underground from New Home to Home. She had already heard them all during her shift, had in fact been directly at the source. They had stationed her at the outer gates of Nee Home tonight. Not in the palace, but close enough, and so she heard it first when the guards were gathered before the announcement. 

She still couldn't believe it herself. 

But she had to. She had a duty to fulfil, and so she ignored the murmurs, ignored even the monsters who called out for her, trailing behind her in spite of her colleagues trying to stop them, begging for confirmation or reassurance. Instead, she made her way to the guardhouse where the other sentries not on duty were already waiting, closing the door behind her and shutting the crowd out. Not that it changed much. As the door closed in the faces of the populace, the other sentries sprang up and stared at her with pleading eyes. 

She didn't want to be here. Didn't want to be the one to tell them. 

What she really wanted to do was go home and be with her wife. 

But she had a duty, to the kingdom and the monsters in it, and so she staid. Staid and delivered the message, the blow to everyone's souls. 

“Something has happened last night. We of the guard are to spread the message to the other sentries and keep order among the people until the crowns make their official statement,” Wolfhild began, already seeing the fear in her colleague's eyes with the confirmation that something did happen. She could smell it too, stronger in the enclosed room than it was outside. It was stinging her nose. Made her want to run. 

“So the rumours are true?” one of her colleagues asked. A dog, not a wolf like her, but clearly sniffing her out just the same. 

“I don't know what rumours you heard,” she said, “but this is what happened: last night, the young human… died. Their illness finally took them after all. The prince took their soul and became one with it. It was likely the grief... He used it to cross the barrier with their corpse. Perhaps to appeal to the humans for their souls. But they didn’t listen. They attacked him and wounded him. He returned to the throne room where he put the corpse down.”

Wolfhild had to pause here, the next part almost too hard for her to get through. 

“The prince… he. The prince then. His wounds. The prince perished from his wounds. Dusted in the throne room after being found by his parents.”

There was an outcry before she even finished speaking, howls from dogs and wolves alike. Despite the pain she felt in her ears at the ruckus, she waited for them to get the worst of it out. 

“Calm yourselves,” she finally ordered. “We need to be strong now. The king and queen rely on us as their guards to ensure that the people won't be without support in these difficult times. We need to guard them and lead them by example. We need to ensure order and give them safety, and… hope for the future, no matter how difficult that might be.”

The whines and howls subsided as the sentries were called to remember their vows, as she reminded them of what they had sworn to do. Protecting the kingdom, the people within it and the royalty leading it - that was always to come before any personal falterings. 

Wolfhild watched closely as the guards regained their composure. Many were still clearly struggling with the news, but in their eyes she saw the fire of purpose alight again, the compassion and love they held for the monsters of the kingdom driving them even in the absence of hope. No eyes were dark or blank. 

Good. 

No signs of falling. 

Giving them something useful and positive to focus on seemed to help, just like her training had taught her. The king and queen always insisted on that, that in a crisis, giving monsters something productive to do, something to cling to, could be paramount in saving them from hopelessness and therefore death. 

She squared her own shoulders too, drawing herself up to her full height and width, muscular and powerful. 

“Dogaya, Dogin, Wolfgang, you'll go and take over on the east side of Snowdin. Relieve the guards on duty there and take over for them. Keep the population calm, dispel any rumours that go out of hand, but don't lie to the people. Tell them there has been an incident but that the underground is safe and that there will be a statement later today. They will be informed as soon as possible. Send the guards here so they can be informed of the situation. Wolfram, Wolfsburg and Doggen, you do the some on west side of town. Dogna and Wolft, you'll stay with me and we'll calm down the crowds coming to seek information here and inform the other guards as they arrive. Understood?”

She looked around at her pack, seeking the confirmation and loyalty needed in hard times like these. She found exactly that, all guards with their ears up and alert, eyes shining with purpose, tails straight and out from between their legs. 

“Then let's go.”

They followed her without further question, making their way through the small crowd still waiting in front of the doors. Wolfhild and her partners helped them by talking to the monsters gathered, reassuring them that they weren't in danger and royal couple would make an announcement soon, that they wouldn't be left in the dark much longer. Perhaps it was already happening in New Home and the news just had to travel to them. The guard would keep their ears open and inform them as soon as possible. 

It went on and on like that, interrupted by only brief intermissions where other guard squads arrived to be taken inside and told what was really going on. A difficult hour, after which Wolfhild was glad when things were calm enough for her to take a brief break. She hurried home for it immediately. 

“Finally,” she groaned as the door closed behind her. “Sorry I'm late, honeypaw, there's a lot going on today…”

She sniffed the air and walked around the cot attached to the large oven in the kitchen, finding her wife curled up there. Her big, furry form took up the entirety of it, the massive bear almost too big for it even though they had built it larger than usual. 

Then she paused. 

Something wasn't right. 

“Fursa…?” 

Wolfhild’s wife didn't stir. Her fur, always a warm brown with honey coloured streaks in it, showed hints of grey. 

Grey like dust. 

Wolfhild fell to her knees and began shaking her wife, cold dread rapidly spreading in her soul. Her ears folded back in fear.

“Fursa! Fursa, what's happening? Why are you…? Please, wake up!”

She was falling. Clearly she was falling. But why? What could have caused her to lose hope? They had a good life together, they had a house and enough money and food and their marriage was going well. They had been talking about possibly having children, recently. There was no reason why she should fall now, was there? It didn't make sense, Fursa couldn't possibly know about what happened already! Could she? It didn't make sense! 

Wolfhild’s head fell back and a long, sorrowful howl wretched itself out of her throat, echoing far beyond the confines of her small wooden house. All her pain and helpless confusion were packed into the sound, and it didn't take long before it summoned others, her guard colleagues throwing the door open and rushing inside. 

“Wolfhild! We heard you, what's wrong?” 

She was surrounded by her pack, but she couldn't pay them any attention. Her wife was falling and so her eyes remained fixed at the strands of grey in the für in front of her, her howl quieting to pained whines. 

“Oh no.”

“Is Fursa…?”

“What happened?”

Many cold noses pressed themselves against her, offers of comfort that did nothing to ease the pain in Wolfhild’s soul. She appreciated them, but they didn't help. 

“I found her here like this…” she whined. She didn't know what to do. Sometimes, monsters who fell would wake up again, but it was so rare. She had never had to deal with something like this herself. She had sometimes consoled others whose family members had fallen, and she sometimes helped watch the orphans of the town, some of whom had parents who fell before they dusted. But she had never experienced this from up close. 

“Did she find out?” one of the sentries asked. The unease and fear in his voice sounded strange to Wolfhild for a moment until she understood why. If this was the first casualty of the news, then it didn't bode well for the future as others might follow. 

The thought felt distant to her in spite of what she had thought about duty and being there for the monster population before. 

It was harder to care about relative strangers when her own wife was in danger.   
“She couldn't possibly. Could she?”

“If this is…”

“Shh! Show some respect! This isn't the moment for politics!”

Wolfhild felt incredibly grateful to Dogna for stopping the background speculation. 

“Wolfhild, do you want us to try and help healing her?” Dogna continued. “It doesn't always do much, but sometimes the extra magic helps… especially when they're not fallen for long yet.”

Wolfhild nodded immediately. Anything, anything to help her wife. She didn't care how low the chances were, she wanted to try everything. She hadn't lost her hope yet. 

The other sentries stepped forwards, those who knew healing magic, green bullets already forming on their paws. They slipped into Fursa’s body one after another while Wolfhild watched in desperation. She wished fervently she could heal. Why had she never bothered to learn? She wanted to support her wife. 

A knock on the still open door startled her out of her thoughts and she looked up. In the frame stood a dragon in full plate armour, who she recognised as one of the guards from New Home. 

“Apologies,” he said, “but there is news.”

Wolfhild felt herself freeze, and so did the rest of the squad. She didn’t know how much more bad news she could take. How much longer her own soul could keep up its hope under the crushing weight of her fear and grief. Although she did notice that his face held no despair. His helmet was off, and his eyes shone with a fire she hadn’t seen in a monster before. The dragon stood up straight as all eyes rested on him. 

“The king has announced that from now on, he will do everything necessary to break the barrier. From now on, any human that falls into the underground will be captured and their soul taken. The king… Asgore… he will gather the seven souls necessary to bring us freedom and lead us to the surface! He will become a god and with his power he will free us all and reclaim the surface for us from the humans!” 

The dragon got louder and louder as he spoke, and Wolfhild could hear the people of Snowdin cheer from the outside as his voice carried through the open door. 

Wolfhild stared at the dragon in wonder. Asgore would do this? They would be free? 

The stunned silence was ripe with emotions. Wolfhild could feel it wasn’t just her. The awe, the wonder, the _hope_ was shared by everyone in this room and beyond. 

It was as though a shadow on her soul slowly lifted, peeled away by something bright and warm. 

It was new strength flowing through her limbs, a swell of emotion driving tears into her eyes. She ignored the cheers of the other monsters and turned back to her wife. Wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close, nuzzling her snout into the shaggy fur right underneath Fursa’s ear. 

“Did you hear that, honeypaw?” she whispered. “Asgore is going to do it. He’ll get us out of here. He’ll get all the seven souls and break the barrier. We’ll go back to the surface… see the sun. The moon!” A weak chuckled escaped her. “Remember how I’d always complain about not seeing the moon? A wolf monster should get to howl at the moon… I want to do it. I want to be there with you when it happens. Imagine us in the moonlight… don’t you want to see it?” 

She was alight with hope, with love. So much of it, she had to share it. It did what it had never done before and took shape, her intentions forming her magic into something new. Green bullets sprang from her paws and sank into Fursa’s body. 

“I know you do. You have to be strong, Fursa… you can’t lose hope now. Not when we might be free soon. You have to stay so we can see it all together. You and me! It’s going to be so beautiful, I just know it. I know it…”

All around her, and from the outside, the cheering grew louder and louder. Monsters were shouting their fury about what happened out loud, and their renewed fervour, their hope and joy for the promise of freedom. 

“Do you hear them? They’re already celebrating. They’re so happy… knowing the king will fight for us. For our right to get out of here! Don’t you want to join them?” She gently licked the spot underneath Fursa’s ear, a secret action that she knew nobody would be able to see. Fursa had always loved it when Wolfhild did that. “We could be out there too. Cheering with the others, letting our bullets fly, praising the king. You like celebrations, you would love it, wouldn’t you? All you have to do is… wake up…”

Wolfhild knew it was unlikely. It rarely ever happened, and no matter how high her hopes, no matter how strong her love, she knew the chances. She knew. 

Still. 

When she felt the slightest twitch underneath her paws, she smiled.


	6. Our personal Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The perspective of an Amalgamate.
> 
> I keep apologising for sad chapters but... honestly?? A lot of Undertale pre-canon just is very sad...
> 
> [My tumblr](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)

They woke up and were confused. 

They couldn't make sense of themselves, didn't know how to make sense of their bodies - their body - their bodies - their body. Their mind and minds. 

What were they?

Who were they?

_Who were they?_

Names flashed through their thoughts but not full ones, broken fragments dripping like slick slime sludge slime sludge. They knew it was in their mind but it was in their body, their bodies, their body as well. Slick and slimy. With every twitch there were globs and flecks dripping off them, gathering on the thin mattress beneath them before slowly flowing back into their mass. They could feel it, the irregular flecking and the slow regathering of parts of them. 

They were falling apart but they would not disintegrate. 

They were too _determined_ to disintegrate. 

That made them pause, that was new to them, a new feeling. They hadn't felt determined before, none of them, not like this, not in the way that burned itself into their minds and bodies and raced through their magic and their very souls like magma when the core erupted. They were burning and the burn hurt but it was a part of them. The burn was them now, too. They were it and it was them. 

The burn touched everything inside them, everything they were, and everywhere it touched it was hot hot hot until they melted under its force. The red hot burning wriggled into the power of their magic and the space of their souls and snapped apart what held them together, leaving them in a state of constant flow. Yet it also did hold them together, prevented them from flowing apart. It replaced what had held them together before. Sheer force of will, that was not theirs, that was theirs, that was them, that fuelled and powered and burned and _killed_ them. 

No. 

They were not dead. 

Yes. 

They were. 

They wanted to move, to prove to themselves that they could, that they were not fallen, that they were alive. But a part of them did not want to move and so one half moved without the other and they almost split, a mass surging away from a mass, spattering droplets of itself everywhere. 

It hurt, but it didn't hurt as much as they thought it should. 

The mass that had surged away fell back, collapsed into the one which had stayed. The droplets that had fallen away from their body slowly crawled back into them. For some unknown amount of time, they rested, not daring to move again. What if it hurt again? They could not risk that. 

But they couldn't stay like this forever. 

Something was clearly wrong with them. They had to do something about it. Get help. 

Yes. 

Help. 

Yes. 

Get help. 

They tried to look around and sniff and listen but it was… jumbled. 

It was dark. Darker than dark, deepest pitch black unlike any other they had seen before. Or had they? They couldn't remember. How were they supposed to tell if they couldn't remember? 

It was stinking. Of disinfectants and medicine and dust. The smell stung when they breathed in, but it wasn't as complex as they remembered smells to be. Smells shouldn't be this flat. Or should they? They couldn't remember. The fallibility of their memory upset them. There was a groan. 

It was noisy. There was the groan and a hum in the background and more groans and drip drip dripping and clanging in the distance and very very muted there were footsteps above them, heard through a mass of material. Earth and stone. Their hearing was good and that at least felt right. They couldn't remember why any more than they could remember anything else, but it was still a single buoy in an ocean of madness and fear and pain and so they clung to it regardless. 

They could hear. 

Could they speak?

Could they?

Where was their _mouth_?

“hhhHhffpNNNNNNNNOOOOUUULLLLLLlllfh -”

”ARWAWAWAQAWAHHHOOUUUUUUUUNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAARWAWR -”

”WOWOWOWOHOWHONOWOWHOOOOUUllllleeeeeeellllllllllllllpppppppppppp -”

There. 

They had a mouth. It was right there. It was okay. 

It was _different_. 

What was happening to them?

What was happening to them? 

What was happening to them? 

What was happening to them? 

What was happening to them?

They couldn’t speak properly. It had all come out garbled. They had tried to speak but it had been as if their mouth didn’t entirely belong to them, as if it was doing its own thing while they tried to use it, as if several words and phrases were trying to escape at once. That was clearly not right. Not okay.

What was happening to them? 

Clearly this warranted doing something. They couldn’t stay passive about this. They couldn’t. This time, when they tried to move, there was no resistance. No disagreement of parts; they all moved as one. All? All. All all all all moving away from the mattress and out of the bed. Moving felt strange. One two three four five six legs moving and moving. Legs that were beneath, or were they not, no no they were, except…

What was happening to them?

They focused on the confusion of up and down, of experiencing their legs as below and above simultaneously. Hazy impressions floated through their mind, a hint of vision. They could see tiles in green and darker green. The lights were dimmed. There were hospital beds, many of them lined up in front of and behind and beside them. On the floor, white sludge dripped down only to flow back to white paws and recollect there to join the mass. 

To join… them. 

Their thoughts exploded with so many words at once. 

They were in a hospital - 

No, a laboratory - 

They had seen one before, hadn’t they, they thought they had - 

They had _paws_ -

They had visited on occasion with their… pups?

Pups. Puppies. Their little ones were dogs, little puppies with little paws and that meant they were - 

They were -

_They were good dogs._

Good dogs, several of them, they had been separate, they had been whole. What had happened to them? 

A whine made it out of their mouth hole, and out of the shadows between their multiple legs. It was multilayered and broken, sounding painful even to their own ears. 

They had fallen. 

They remembered that now. It came rushing back with the memory of being _good dogs_. They had been guards, protecting the people, raising their pups, and then after decades of living full and rich and happy lives with lots of pets and sniffing and good food and nice friends they had grown tired and fell down. Such was life. Good life. But why were they back now? 

What had happened to them? 

They sniffed, the dulled smells of the laboratory not telling them as much as they wanted, needed to know. The steps above them resumed after having been still for a while now. Perhaps whoever those steps belonged to could help. They had to call them down here. 

“aaAaaawwawWWWOOOoooOOOOOooooOOOUUUUUuuuu -”

”ARWAWAWAQAWAHHHOOooooOOOOUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuu -”

”WOwOWoWOhoWHOOooooooooOoOOOOuuuuuUUUUUUuuuuu -”

They stopped when the overlaying sounds of the howl became too painful for their ears. Stopped and listened, and yes - the steps were moving faster now and then there was a clattering rumble that grew less and less dull as it moved downwards, closer to them. Their back wiggled. It was their tail that was wagging, spraying white goop everywhere. Someone was coming. Someone was coming and would help them now. 

It was going to be okay. 

There was a _ding_ and the hiss and clatter of opening doors. Steps now and they were already so close. The smell of salty soup and sweat on scales, and unwashed fabric.

“H-hey…” 

The person who had come for them was small. Smaller than them. They could vaguely see yellow scales, and a white lab coat. A bright light reflected on the face from a pair of glasses. 

“A-are you h-hungry again?”

They sniffed. They could smell food on her. A strange liquid began flecking from their main orifice. They were hungry. They wanted the food. 

“aaAaaawwawWWWOOOooo -”

”ARWAWAWAwawawawawa -”

”WOwOWoWOhoWHOOoooowowoooooooooooo -”

“O-okay… i-it’s okay, easy…”

The words were stuttered and insecure, but soothing. They could hear fear in the voice and that made them vibrate quickly, but at least the voice wasn't loud. They vibrated less quickly and then the person finally pulled out the food. It took them less than a second to surge forwards and begin to devour it, foaming slime wetting the dry crumbs of the food and the plate and floor around it. 

“G-good dogs…” 

A hesitant, sweaty hand reached out and touched their head. Moving forwards and back. 

Pets!

They were being pet!

Head pats, head pets? 

It was good. 

Their tail wagged harder and their whole body vibrated with excitement. Food in their belly and a gentle caress on their head. Clearly that meant it was now time to play. They lowered four of their legs, keeping their back half upright with only two. They may not remember everything correctly, but they knew that this was how to play. 

“I… I-I’m sorry, I have a l-lot to do, I can't…”

And the person who fed them turned away. 

A loud whine erupted out of them together with a wild tangle of emotions. No play?! They were sad! Angry! Disappointed! Disbelieving! Hurt! Why couldn't they play?!

“ARRARRARRRRRRRRRRRRGRRRRRRRRRGRRRRRRRRR - “

”ggrrrrrgrrrrrrrrrrRRRGGGRRRRRAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR - “

”rrrrrrrrawrrrrrRRRRRRaaarrrrRRRRRAAAAAAAAWWWWRRRR - “

“H-hey, no, w-wait, wait!!” 

Loud! It was loud, the voice was loud and shrieking, they didn't like that, their own voice was like this too and they hated it, it hurt their ears! Stop! 

There was no thought that brought it on, merely instinct. The world around them darkened, the vague haze of the laboratory and the person in front of them vanishing. White bullets flew through the darkness while the voice kept shrieking. They were confused. Scared. Where did the bullets come from? They didn’t like bullets. They had to protect the voice even if it was shrieking. The voice had fed them and pet them, after all. 

“O-okay! Okay! H-here! We can play! See this, uhm, t-toilet paper roll? Y-yeah, it’s a stick! You w-want the stick?” 

Something was waved in front of them. Long and thin. A stick?

A stick?? 

Were they going to play??

Play!

Their tail wagged so fast they covered half of the room in small white flecks of slime, which then began a slow migration back into their body. They crouched low, waiting for the game to begin. It was so exciting! They were going to play! The person had fed them and pet them and now they were going to play! What a good person! 

There!!

The stick was thrown!

With a rapid movement that left some of their mass behind, they ran after the stick, bounding over hospital beds and other obstacles. Their claws scratched over the tiled floors and walls, leaving deep gouges in their wake. That was unintentional. They felt a little bad for a second, but then they saw the stick on the ground and forgot all about it. No time for walls and floors and scratches. What counted was the stick! 

Even though they didn’t mean to, they ended up trampling the stick in their enthusiasm. It popped a little, and when they removed their heavy, slimy paw, the middle of the stick was bent and wet. But that was okay. The stick didn’t have to be perfect to be fun. 

Lowering their head, they took the stick into their orifice carefully before they ran back to the person who was playing with them, tail wagging all the way. They nearly bowled over the person too, but only because they were so excited! And the person did step out of the way with a shriek, so it was fine. 

They dropped the stick at the person’s feet and panted with the effort and the joy of their play. 

It was good. 

Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the darkness vanished again. They didn’t understand it, but they were relieved regardless. It was good they were gone. Someone could have gotten hurt by their bullets.

“A-ah… th-that was close…” A deep sigh. 

They felt… they knew this. Good food and good pets, and having fun with friends. It reminded them of things. Of how it was when they were _good dogs_. They had guarded a town, and played with their pups, and spoken with the townspeople. And sometimes they were visited by another guard and praised for their good work. It was easier to remember when they were doing similar things. When they were not alone. 

“O-okay… I… I really have t-to go now…”

The person retreated. They felt their ears flop down. The person was leaving? No more play? But they remembered better, when they they played… 

“hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuuuuuuuu - “

”ouwouuuuuuuuu - “

”nuuuoooooouuuuuu - “

Their whine was just as overlapping and multilayered as any other sound they had made so far. They didn't want the person to go. They didn't want to forget again. If they forgot again… 

How often had this happened? How often had they remembered only to forget again as soon as they were left alone?

“I'm… I-I’m sorry…” 

A sob. 

“I'm so sorry…”

Smelled like salt. And wetness.

Images of whimpering puppies flickered in the back of their minds, several different ones fusing together into a single memory. Whimpering puppies had to be comforted. That instinct went deeper than anything else. 

They lowered their head and pressed the side of it against the shivering, whimpering puppy-person in front of them, careful to keep their orifice away. After all, scaring whining puppies with a big mouth was not good. 

The person wrapped their arms around them and clung to their sticky mass, sobbing into their side. 

If only they still had fur. 

Then they could warm the crying one like they had done with their own pups. Offer softness and the comfortable smell of shaggy hair to cry into. They felt inadequate now that they were all goopy and messy. 

It took a while before the person stopped sobbing. 

They watched the person step back abruptly and walk away, rubbing at the eyes under the glasses. 

_Alphys._

The Name popped into their head all of a sudden, accompanied by a rush of images of the hunched over little dinosaur monster, big teeth and glasses and stuttering, sweaty shyness. She had been younger then. A decent bit younger. They had often found her in the garbage dump in Waterfall. 

How long ago had that been? 

They didn't know and with the confusion over the time frame they had been here like this, they felt the other memories fading just as fast as they had come. There was nobody left here to remind them. Only more slimy creatures like them and… they felt that they might remember more, better, if only someone stayed. Someone they knew. Maybe then it would be easier to keep hold of memories that felt just as slimy and slippery as their body. 

But that didn't matter. 

They had consoled a crying puppy. 

Despite everything, they were still determined to be _good dogs_. 

And ultimately that was what counted.


	7. Into the Mountain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, finally back at it! This was a bit of an unexpected break, sorry for that. Restructuring my blog took a lot out of me and then I had trouble getting back on the horse. I'm getting there though^^
> 
> [If you want to influence what I write next, be sure to follow my tumblr](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)

Asgore looked back, letting his gaze roam over the crowd. 

His people were gathered behind him, filling the cavern, whispering and looking to him to lead. Monsters with fire magic and torches were strategically placed so he could see the whole of the convoy even in the dark. So far, the number had remained stable. Not something that had been guaranteed under the circumstances, and thus he felt all the more grateful for it. 

Still. He knew they had to do this now. 

Even if he didn’t truly feel ready to move yet, for a trek of this magnitude with so many to watch over, stalling could mean far worse things to happen. They had prepared according to the plan he, Toriel and Gerson had spoken about at the barrier. Sent at least some scouts into the tunnels leading away from the main cave, not too far, but enough to get an understanding of which ones were likely dead ends and which ones would lead them further into the cave system, if at all. They had cautiously begun drawing up some rudimentary maps, even. 

The tunnel they were now in front of was the most promising: not the biggest, but it had the most change of temperature and moisture as it went downwards, and so it seemed this was the one they were to take if they wanted to progress. It was warmer down this corridor, and that had some potentially promising implications. Food was running low - if they could find a source of warmth, that could already help with the growing, if there was magma streams and the fertile earth that resulted from it, they could do some emergency growing helped along with magic to tide them over until real harvests were possible. The vegetoids could only do so much when it was cold and dark, but with heat and light they would be capable of producing a decent amount of emergency rations before they needed to rest. 

He only hoped it would be enough for everyone, even if they had to ration it. Making the decision of who would get to eat and who wouldn’t… that wasn’t a decision he ever wanted to have to make. 

With that grim thought, he concluded his survey of the convoy of monsters behind him, his resolved strengthened to ensure their survival. 

Toriel was next to him and he knew Gerson was at the back. Grudgingly, but understanding that the monsters at the far back would need reassurance and protection from one of their leaders, and Asgore needed Toriel at his side. She was better at thinking under certain specific amounts of emotional pressure, better at making decisions in spite of her own feelings. He needed her for this. 

She was looking at him now, waiting for him to finish so they could take the first step together. 

It felt odd to move out of the cavern. 

Asgore could feel the subtle shift in the air around him as he and Toriel walked into the corridor, fire magic illuminating their way. The shuffle of their people following them was loud, echoing in odd ways off the walls. It meant they had to rely on other senses and could not include their hearing to tell if something was off - it wouldn't be possible to get any unusual noises from the caves over this ruckus. Another downside of moving together, but one they had accounted for in their plans. 

The excitement of taking off didn't last very long. Exploring the cave was interesting in many ways, but Asgore was under too much pressure to find something useful down here to really enjoy seeing the different rock formations on the walls they passed by. It was simply stone in the dark. The corridor tightened a little initially, even to the point where Asgore had to duck and he wondered if they had made a mistake choosing this one. It wouldn't be good for morale if they had. But soon enough, the opening widened again and he had more than enough space to stand in, with the cave ceiling above him receding higher and higher. 

More importantly though, he could see a faint point of light. 

Light that came from in front of and below him, light that wasn't produced by him… 

“Do you see this?” he asked Toriel, unable to keep the hope out of his voice. Should they really be so lucky?

“I see it,” Toriel confirmed. “It feels warmer too.”

Asgore felt excitement burst in his soul for the first time since their banishment. He wanted to rush forwards and see it for himself as quickly as possible, but he knew he had to put his safety first, his and that of his people. He and Toriel continued at the same even pace, carefully checking and smelling and feeling for any danger. The monsters behind them soon noticed the illumination too, and broke out in cries and whispers, spreading the news to those further back. They did stick to his rules though, and did not try to rush forwards. Everyone kept their spot. Whether they trusted Asgore this much or if the presence of the very strategically placed guards help, he didn't know, but it was not important as long as it worked. 

They reached a cliff soon after that, where Asgore carefully inched forwards, secured by blue magic from one of his guards, to look down. 

Deep below him, he could see what he had been hoping for. The bottom of this massive ravine was a lake of magma, the heat of it distorting what he could see of the many arches of stone crisscrossing over it. Those might be possible to use in order to navigate closer to the heat. If they could get closer - they had light, warmth, they would be able to grow things, their rations would be refilled, the fire monsters among them would get an environment that would strengthen their internal magic. They still needed so much else - water was important, for example. But this was already a promising start to their exploration, and one that would give them an important boost in energy and motivation. 

“There is a lake of magma at the bottom of this ravine,” he said, not only loud enough for Toriel to hear, but loud enough for his voice to carry to many of the monsters who were following in their wake. Again murmurs broke out, cries, and Asgore had the impression that this time the news spread even faster. In the eyes of those closest to his wife and soldiers, he could see the first glimmer of true hope beginning to shine through, something he hadn’t seen since before the war started. 

It brought more relief and hope to his own soul. He had worried so much about losing someone, or several people, had worried that one fallen might set off a chain reaction that would lead to their people being wiped out after all. But now there was hope - and nothing was more important to them than hope. It was in many ways even more important than light, heat, or water. 

A monster entirely without hope could be as comfortable and safe as possible, and still fall. 

One that had hope could survive in the most dire of circumstances. 

Very quickly, more monsters gathered alongside him at the cliff of the ravine. Many wanted to see the light for themselves, feel the warmth, after several days in the cold dark of the caves. But the guard managed to keep order and allowed only those forwards who had blue magic or wings or vines, so they could help exploring the ravine in a safe way. The rest of the monsters were led by soldiers to explore some of the side corridors if they volunteered, and the general buzz of excitement and productivity changed the entire atmosphere. Asgore could feel it in the crowd, the way the mood shifted away from the slowly growing despair that had been building in everyone since their banishment. They were still in a cave, cut off from the sky and their freedom, but their prospects of survival looked better now at least. 

Toriel was next to him while they waited for the scouts exploring the ravine to report back, and he felt her slide a paw into his, squeezing it a little. 

“This is a relief,” she said, quietly but openly, while overlooking the proceedings down below. The flying monsters they had sent were bats and firebirds mostly, and fire elementals held by blue magic, monsters that would be safe down there while they didn’t know what the terrain specifically looked like. 

“It is,” he agreed. 

They had kept their fears and worries secret from the population and most of their soldiers over the past days, but now that some progress had been made they could admit that this worry had been there even when they might be heard. To hear a ruler worry while the future was uncertain could upset the poplance and lead to unrest and monsters falling. But to hear a ruler worry when a solution was found was to realise they were all the same at their core, that their souls were no different even when Asgore and Toriel were boss monsters and in a position of power and the others were not. This was something they had always stuck with in all their years of rulership, and they wouldn’t abandon it now. 

There were still other things they were worried about that they didn’t voice of course. Water most of all, and if there was enough space down there to grow something at all. For now those remained as unvoiced as their previous worries had been. 

“The cave continues down there,” one of the scouts said without preamble as she landed close to Asgore at the very edge of the ravine. One of his bat soldiers, she had helped protect civilians and troops alike in the war thanks to her aerial surveillance at night. He remembered her well for her bravery. Now she looked excited, her body positively itching to fly off again immediately. She was almost tripping over her own words as she told him the news. “There are several entrances to other corridors, most seem to be leading to dead ends, but there are a few that might lead towards another, larger cave system. I thought I could hear water in one! I didn’t fly in very far without your permission. Should we go deeper?”

Should they really be so lucky?

“If there is a chance of water to be found we should at least send a group of scouts,” Asgore decided, after Toriel gave him another squeeze of his paw to show that she supported his decision. “Please wait here for a moment.” 

They took a moment to a small group of bat monsters for the mission. Fire monsters like those currently scouting the ravine shouldn't get close to the water, and they didn't know how bright it was in the corridor where the water might be, so bats seemed a safe option. They were all equipped with containers in case they found water, albeit under strict instructions not to drink any until it was deemed safe. 

While they waited for the scouts to return, Asgore and Toriel organised for bridges to be built downwards, utilising the many platforms and arches that were already there. Plant monsters used their vines to lay down ideas as a foundation, while the rock monsters with their command over earth and stone began the slower work of turning those ideas into something more sturdy and permanent. News were sent to the back of the convoy through soldiers, to give the monsters at the back official information on why they were stalling instead of just rumours, and to update Gerson on the situation. More reports trickled in from monsters who had explored the side corridors they had already passed, mostly speaking of more dead ends. While something like water or vegetation would have been preferable, even dead ends could be seen as good news. Space was ultimately a finite resource in a cave, no matter how big that cave might turn out to be, so any extra amount of it was welcome. 

After almost an hour, the scouts returned with their containers full of water and more good news besides; it wasn't only a single source. There was an entire river system further down past the magma lake, and there were some plants growing there too as a result. Mosses, mostly, perhaps more. The water also seemed to contain bioluminescent algae, giving another faint source of illumination, albeit only in some streams. 

According to the scouts, the ecosystem seemed stable, stable enough to be enhanced by monster magic. The glow of the algae could perhaps be brightened, more plants grown for sure. And the cave went on even beyond that, though they hadn't explored there yet. 

Fresh water in flow, and more space than Asgore had dared to hope for. 

He hated to feel any amount of gratitude towards their captors at all, but it was at the back of his mind and soul regardless of his wishes. Their banishment was a terrible fate, but at least it didn't have to be a prolonged, extraordinarily cruel death sentence. With a bit of magic and knowledge, they would be able to survive and carve out an existence down here. They were not simply crammed into a tiny hole with no resources at all. They had the basics needed to build something for themselves. Water, light, heat, plants, space. They would not starve in the dark. 

It could have been so much worse. 

It was still bitter that even these basic necessities were something to feel grateful for. Gratitude for scraps, really. But as he had spent the past few days fearing that his people would soon fade away without any hope for betterment, it was hard not to feel this way. 

The news were passed on to the back just as fast, while here at the front, the construction of the bridges continued. 

For the first time since their predicament had begun, Asgore felt as though he could breathe a little easier. They determined quickly that the water was safe to drink without any additional manual or magical filtering and immediately set up more groups of flying monsters to go down. They would work on rotation to carry water up for the population while the bridges were being built; Toriel assumed they would be here for about half a day or a day depending on how fast the construction crew could work their magic. 

In the meantime, they would use the water for the aquatic monsters who had survived only on the rations they had already had when they were banished and a lot of healing magic to keep them alive. Fresh water would do them a lot of good until they would be able to completely submerge themselves in the streams down there. 

Asgore and Toriel used the enforced break to quickly meet with Gerson to go over their plans personally now that they had confirmed the presence of the most important resources in the caves. While moving next to a lightsource or water directly was very tempting, they all agreed that they wanted to finish exploring the cave first at the very least. Knowledge of what exactly the cave system contained and looked like was vital to decide where and how they would set up a new base, and it would soothe the worries they all had about any nasty surprises. None of them could shake the suspicion that there must be more traps laid for them by the humans and only confirming the absence of such traps personally would help. 

They concluded their planning session with the announcement that the bridges were finished, and pressed on. Heading down wasn’t easy in spite of knowing what waited for them afterwards. The heat was already difficult to deal with for flame-resistant but thick-furred monsters like Asgore and Toriel, but it was even worse for the aquatic and ice monsters, who had to be protected by several shields in some cases to make it through safely. 

It was worth the effort of course. 

The scouts had not exaggerated in their reports. Beyond the magma lake, the terrain changed into a muggy marshland with multiple streams fed by waterfalls coming from above. Bat scouting groups send upwards confirmed that these waterfalls originated on the surface, through they were unable to fly up past a certain point where the barrier held them off. As Asgore had suspected, the magical construct containing them didn’t only cover a single entry point. Even though it had been expected, it was disappointing to learn. He didn’t quite give up hope that a weak point in the barrier could yet be found, but he knew it was a futile hope deep in his soul. 

The exploration of the caves in this part took them a long while. The side tunnels were numerous and some had water dripping from the ceiling, leaving Asgore with a melancholy yearning for rain. He didn’t know if he wouldn’t ever get to experience it again and didn’t want to imagine a life without it. 

They passed through several spacious caves where even the best efforts of multiple monsters with fire magic weren’t enough to allow them to see the ceiling or even the opposite walls. They walked and explored for hours before the temperatures began to drop slightly, creating new maps and taking samples of any plants they found along the way. It was here that the exploration efforts really proved to help the population as almost everybody had the opportunity to contribute something. The productivity was a large boost for morale. 

Following what seemed to be the main river downstream while exploring all the sidearms led them to an end of this part of the cavern after over a day of work. They set up camp at a single narrow tunnel that seemed to lead into a new part that wasn’t a dead end, and rested for a while. Asgore could hear his people whisper about all they had seen for a long time while he tried to fall asleep himself. 

When they resumed their march on the next day, there was a noticeable increase in energy and drive from everyone. They passed through another large and open cavern, navigating several more ravines and cliffsides. The open spaces allowed for better airflow which left this part of the cave noticeably cooler than the preceding ones. It was almost chilly even for Asgore himself, and some of the more sensitive monsters had to be kept warm by those with fire magic. 

Asgore didn’t really want to take another rest here, as it felt too unprotected and risky in terms of warmth, but Toriel made him see reason after some time. The chill was affecting the convoy and they didn’t know how deep this cave went, so it would be better to conserve their energy. 

A wise decision as it turned out, since it took them almost an entire second day before they finally reached the end of that cavern. There had been a point where the walls narrowed a little before widening again, and the stream that they had lost track of in the cooler parts reappeared, weaving its way in and out of their sight. 

Then, the tunnes began to get smaller again. The amount of dead ends in side tunnels increased once more, until they found themselves following a single narrow corridor that ended very suddenly after a sharp turn in a small, rounded cavern. It had very high ceilings, leaving them to feel as if they were standing at the bottom of a very deep well. There were no other tunnels or cracks in the walls visible. 

This was it. 

“Send word back to the back of the convoy that we found the end of the cave system,” Toriel ordered a group of guards, “and let them know that we will take another rest now. We will confer with our guard captain about the terrain, so please send Gerson to us. After we have spoken and everyone has rested, we will begin an open discussion about where we will set up a permanent camp to recover from the war, where we will listen to suggestions and concerns from the population. Please spread the word about that as well, so that everyone can prepare accordingly.”

They had to deal with the ensuing bustle of activity for a bit, conferring with Gerson and answering questions by guards, but soon enough the monsters settled down in their own little corners not too far away while they stayed in the rounded room resembling a well. It was a stark reminder of their imprisonment with how high the ceilings were, or rather with how deep of a hole it was. Which meant it made other monsters uncomfortable and thus let them have some privacy. They pressed close to each other as if they were getting ready to sleep all curled up to each other, further giving others a reason to leave them alone if they came to look. 

Both of their eyes were open though, so close to each other that they breathed the same air. 

“It is larger than I thought it would be,” Toriel admitted, quiet as falling snow. Asgore only heard her because of their proximity, because he could almost taste her words in his own mouth. Her voice didn't carry.

“Larger and much less hostile to life,” he agreed. “I do not want to feel grateful…”

“But you do,” she finished. There was no judgement there at all. “The same as I. As much as they torture us by trapping us here, we at least have the resources to try and survive.”

“I… am scared,” he admitted. His voice was barely there at all now. It wasn't often he admitted this at all, but with her he could. “I am scared that this is a false hope. That they let us think we can survive here only to ultimately draw out our death… “

“If that was their plan, they have given us too much for it to succeed,” Toriel reasoned, lifting one of her hands to run it soothingly through the thick hair of his beard. “We have light. Warmth. Fertile volcanic soil. Water. Plants. Space. We have built a loving out of less before.”

“I know.” 

He welcomed her words and gentle touches, the scritch of her nails as she kept brushing her fingers through his beard and the hair of his head, the gentle pressure as she massaged the sports around his horns. He year for her body and soul, wanted to draw out the core of her and show her his love, but it was not the time. So he merely hugged her back, feeling it was wholly inadequate to communicate the depths of his emotions for her. 

“Thank you,” he mumbled. 

“At your service, your majesty,” she replied with a faint laugh, tugging at his horns. His feelings for her had probably become noticeable with his hug. 

“Tori,” he groaned. “Do not tease me like this now.” 

“I cannot help it,” she giggled. “Your reaction is simply too smo-king hot!”

The laugh was startled out of him before he could keep it quiet, resonating throughout the chamber around them. It felt strange, after everything they had gone through, to lie in her arms and laugh like that, as if nothing had happened at all. But of course, it also felt really good. 

It reminded him that in spite of everything, there could still be better times ahead, and that was a reminder he had sorely needed.


	8. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More background on how the Underground (and specifically Home) was built up, and a hopeful and happy chapter :3 
> 
> [On my tumblr, you can regularly vote for which fic I should continue next!](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)

Toriel looked at the plans in front of her, weighing them against each other as she studied the different papers. 

It was the last paper they had left from before their banishment, but it was worth using for this. 

To build a city - that was something they needed to be thorough with. 

Even if they hoped to escape their banishment under the mountain sooner rather than later, they were aware that the situation likely wouldn't be resolved within only a couple of days or even weeks. And that meant that they needed somewhere to stay, housing for the population, means of production, entertainment, safety, everything necessary for a comfortable life. 

A city. 

It had been a long time since she last oversaw something of this magnitude. If anything, she had been called to help with smaller settlements over the past decades and centuries whenever she was in the area to do so, as mobsters regarded the involvement of the king and queen in their new settlements as an honour. But for a city, not enough new monsters had been born, not enough to leave their families and risk starting over somewhere in the wild. With the increased tensions between humans and monsters, Toriel doubted that even a higher birth rate would have changed that. 

“I think this one we can put aside,” she finally said. “And this one as well. We need an irrigation system, routing the naturally our ring rivers in this area through the city in an ordered manner without disrupting them too much. They will be important for the aquatic members of us to get around, and help us with underwater farming. But the rest of the farms… we cannot afford to let them take up valuable ground space. Even if this cave is very large, we must plan with the future in mind. We should not spread out too much. I find this plan intriguing.”

“Using the walls?” her advisor asked. Their name was Shale and they were and older rock monster. One of the master builders and architects that had worked in the last monster settlement she and Asgore had stayed in, someone truly skilled at their craft. Toriel valued their input in general, but now in particular she wanted to hear their thoughts. Building a place to live in a cave, with no sunlight and resources that would have to be carefully managed, was a task of unprecedented magnitude. She wanted and needed all the professional advice she could get. Only then would she feel comfortable making a decision that would determine the direction of how her people would live in the future. 

“It makes sense to me. Utilising the walls to grow food will significantly expand the available space we have to work with, allowing us to ensure that we grow enough while still keeping the ground clear for housing and other infrastructure,” she explained. 

“These are important aspects to consider,” Shale agreed, the craggy surface of their face shifting in thought. “But it will also require more magic. For light, but also to air out the plants. Air from only one side can negatively affect their growth. Water will have to be brought up, and blue magic will be required to assist those farmers who don't naturally have the ability to fly or walk on walls. For some blue magic is innate, both others will have to rely on help from other monsters.”

“I think the additional expense in terms of magic expense for watering, crop rotation and light are ultimately negligible,” Toriel argued. “We will already have to establish artificial climate zones and reroute water and light from the natural sources in this to ensure that the crops will thrive. It will be minor in the grand scheme of things to add the extra magic required for this plan. But you are right about the farmers. Perhaps a partial utilisation of the walls in addition to some zones of ground farming would be a good compromise then? I would really like to use the extra space the walls provide.”

“Yes, a partial solution would have been my next suggestion too,” Shale nodded. They pulled one of the plans closer and began copying it into the dirt, adding alterations to incorporate the new ideas. Toriel made a few additional suggestions along the way. Like this they could go through a variety of alternatives and additions without wasting additional paper before they settled on a solution. 

Toriel thought they would have to be a lot more thoughtful about that from now on, about reserving and reusing things, about not being wasteful. 

“This looks like the most workable solution for now,” Shale eventually decided after they and Toriel had both brought in what they felt was important. 

“Then please copy the new adjusted plans to paper and share them with our builders,” Toriel said. “Now that the planning is done, I wish to begin with construction as soon as reasonably possible. Our people need homes to stay in, and soon.”

“Of course. With all our best stonemasons and magicians working on it, we should make good time. We will lay out the zones first so the other trades can begin immediately as well. By nightfall, we should have the zoning and several buildings completed. I imagine the farmers might take longer?” Shale looked as calm and serious as ever with their furrowed face, but Toriel knew they needed reassurance in this moment. 

“Do not worry. We have already worked out a plan to utilise some of the mosses we found in the caves in combination with what the Vegetoids can magically provide to stock up our emergency rations, and some of the farmers have seeds and plantings for fast-yielding crops in their luggage,” Toriel explained, with her most serene and confident voice. “They thought ahead when they had to flee the human armies and thanks to their forethought we should be able to bridge the time gap until the crops that take longer to grow. We may have to ration the food along the way for short stretches, but on the whole it should work out now that we have light, water and fertile soil.”

Shale nodded, the relief now clear on their face in spite of their efforts to hide their worry. Toriel was glad to see it. Shale didn't need to know how careful the rationing would have to be, how much hinged on those first plantings to go perfectly. That was not for them to worry about. 

“Thank you. Then I suppose I should take my leave, to begin implementing the plans we have spoken about,” Shale said. 

“Oh, before you go, there is one more thing,” Toriel quickly threw in. “Something Asgore and I thought might be good for our new city. Nothing big, only a cosmetic detail, really.”

“Yes?” Shale looked back at her with curiosity. 

“Since we build it from the ground up, we can afford some coherence in the design,” Toriel began. “I am aware you and those of your trade have already spoken about some embellishments to tie the architectural designs together, but Asgore and I wanted to take it a little further. If at all possible… we would like you to die the stone purple. Different shades of purple would be acceptable, as long as they all remain coherent.”

“Purple. Like perseverance,” Shale whispered without any shred of doubt. 

“Yes, like perseverance,” Toriel confirmed. “A visual reminder for us to endure and survive.”

“I see. That might be a good idea to help some of the… more fragile members of our people,” Shale mused. 

“We hope so.” 

They both didn't say it, but they both knew what this was about. The first monster had fallen down just this morning, unable to cope with the new reality of their lives. The family was grieving, but seemed to hold up so far. Toriel and Asgore had personally visited them to offer comfort, and even stayed for the funeral. They had come up with the idea of a purple city just after that; a faint hope that this reminder would help their people. They knew that with the construction of this city, many would think monsters would now love under the earth forever. Never to see the sky or the sun or the stars again. 

Toriel and Asgore both didn't know how long their banishment would last, if it would be permanent or if they would find a way to do something about it. They wanted to do something about it, but they also had to be realistic. Their people needed a place to stay, food, comfort. Otherwise any attempt to work on the conundrum that was the barrier and their banishment would be ultimately futile. On top of that, even if they found a solution, it might take a long while to implement it, and in the meantime they had to live. 

Having the City dyed purple would hopefully remind them and their people that even if it might take time, they were here to survive, to resist the attempts of humans to break them and lock them away in the dark. 

They would persevere. 

“I will tell the other builders about the colour scheme,” Shale finally said. Then they turned and left, leaving Toriel alone for a short moment. 

She closed her eyes took a deep breath. The smell of the cave filled her nostrils, the stone and the earth, the moss and tendrils drowning here. The flicker of the fire she had lighted in her paws to see by was a steady and comfortable background noise, barely audible over the din of voices from the others in the distance. And steps. Steps coming closer. Of course she had already known this moment wouldn't last. There was too much to do, too many things to take care of, too many people who wanted to talk to her - 

“Toriel?”

Her eyes blinked open again. This was one voice she didn't mind interrupting her calm moment at all. 

“How did it go?” she asked. 

Asgore sat down next to her, apparently planning to take a shared moment of quietly catching up with each other before the next issue would come up. 

“It went well,” he told her with a smile. “The artificial climates can be established. There will be no problems.”

“Even with the ventilation?” she wanted to know. 

“Yes. The setup that the experts for this magic suggested is that to achieve the tempered climate we need here to help our crops grow, we will route cold air to the chilly part of the cavern we traversed through just before this one, and hot air to the ravine with its magma,” he explained. “That should leave these two extremes far enough apart that we will not run into issues with extreme differences in pressure or static buildup. At best, they will result in more of a marsh in the cavern part with the many rivers between them, which would further enhance the diversity in biomes in the cave.”

“I am glad we can establish what we need. It worried me for our food production,” she admitted. 

“It should do a lot to help our plans,” Asgore agreed, the tightness around his eyes and the corners of his mouth showing that he was constantly aware of the fragility of their food situation, just as much as she was. 

“Ideally have good news as well,” she told him, eager to alleviate some of his worries as he had hers. “I came to an agreement on the city plans and construction will begin either today or tomorrow. The zones will be laid down today for sure. We found a solution to have enough space to grow food by incorporating terraces on the cave walls, and the city will be purple as we envisioned.”

“We are making progress then,” he mused, some of the tension visibly easing out of his stout frame. It pleased Toriel to see her husband relax a little among everything happening. “Good progress. We are surviving still…”

“And we will continue to do so,” she said firmly, packing every inch of resolution and hope she had into her words. “We will make the best of the hand we have been dealt and thrive where we were meant to suffer.”

Asgore relaxed further, a true smile gracing his features. He leaned over and she met him halfway, gently dragging her nose against his, the soft flesh and fur tickling as they shared their breath and warmth. 

“Thank you for giving me hope,” Asgore said. “I - “

“Oh - my, I, I apologise - “

They both looked up, flushing just as much as the poor messenger who had just walked in on them. The Loox seemed incredibly embarrassed to have interrupted their intimate moment. 

“Apologies,” Toriel said before they could apologise first. “We would not normally do this in the open, but private space is still hard to come by for now…”

“O-of course, I didn’t mean to, I, uhm… “

“Are we needed for the planning?” Asgore asked, bringing matters back to something less awkward. 

“Yes. Apologies!” the Loox squawked. 

“Then we shall be there in a moment.” 

The Loox nodded and fled the scene, leaving Asgore and Toriel sitting alone for one quiet moment before they both began to laugh quietly. 

“I feel like I am a teenager again, getting caught by our parents,” Toriel snickered. Her face was warm underneath her fur. 

“Some things never seem to change,” Asgore chuckled. He was lucky, to have most of his blush hidden by his full beard. Hers shone so much easier through the fine white hairs on her face. 

“Well… We should go, before the poor dear gets any ideas about why we are taking so long,” Toriel said with a grin, giving Asgore a suggestive look. 

His blush did finally become visible at that.

Toriel only laughed more. Teasing him was far too easy. She could honestly do this all day, if only time allowed it. But then, they maybe would have time for that again, now that they had better chances of securing their livelihood. If all worked out as they hoped, if the progress they were making continued… there was not only darkness ahead. There were good things to look forwards to.

“Come,” she said, offering him her paw to hold as they got up. “Let’s go plan our future.”


	9. Technology marches on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Alphys gets to massively nerd out over computers. And is also a little selfish. But not completely. 
> 
> [On my tumblr, you can regularly vote for which fic I should continue next!](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)

The object was half buried in a cluster of soggy books, styrofoam pellets, cardboard boxes and plastic bags. 

It was exactly that mixture of cushioning and water-absorbent material that gave Alphys hope though. She had pulled several of the things out of the trash, but it was always the same; the water damage was too great and she had never been able get them to function. Nor had anyone else for that matter. 

The things were made of plastic and resembled typewriters, but didn't work with the mechanical setup that typewriters came equipped with. They had strange boards inside of them it metal pathways and cables. Clearly the function was meant to be established via some sort of electricity - which monsterkind finally had enough of evn sine the core had been build roughly twenty years ago - but it wasn't clear how. They all knew what the machines were for in theory. Some sort of… calculator. Computer. It was supposed to perform operations, but since all of them had been broken when they fell down here, nobody had quite been able to get one to work yet. At best, the screen would flicker if connected. Even when all the electric parts seemed okay from the outside, the things never seemed to function correctly. And more often than not, they were too broken and corroded by the water to even dream of repairing one. 

This one though… it might have been protected from the moisture just enough. There was also oil dripping from the casing, which might be bad or it might mean that the oil had acted as a further protective layer. She'd have to open the casing to make sure. 

Carefully, she grabbed the object and pulled, trying to pull the trash surrounding it away with her free hand so her prize wouldn't get scraped or otherwise damaged. At the same time, she had to be careful not to destroy the structural integrity of the trash pile as a whole, because trash piles falling apart on you - well, that wasn't something any monster wanted. 

“Oh my gosh! Did you, like, find something?!” 

The voice was high pitched and excitable, betraying the young age of the speaker. Alphys didn't mind though. Catty might be young, but cat monsters aged fast. She'd be on par with Alphys soon enough in terms of mental maturity, and if Alphys showed her a couple of things while she grew up then who knew how clever she might grow up to be!

“Y-yeah!” she told her friend, actually sounding excited too. “It's one of th-those computer things. It l-looks better than the ones I've s-seen so far!” 

“That's like, so cool! Hey Bratty! Look what Alphys found!” 

“Is it another manga?” Bratty asked, carefully wading through the brackish water of the garbage dump. She was wearing an air of deliberate dismissal, carefully cultivated. It was her age. Puberty. It would pass. Alligators didn't mature quite as fast as cats, but also not as slowly as Alphys’ species of dinosaur monster, so she and Catty would probably hit maturity around the same time. A decade or two, most likely. “Because there's like, nothing new about that!”

“N-no! It's… I mean I did find some manga… a-and some interesting papers about circuits I think… but his is about something else!” Alphys insisted before Beatty would completely lose interest. Who knew where she'd wander off to if she found this too boring. Alphys had promised Bratty and Catty’s mothers that she'd look after them. Besides, this was totally exciting! She noticed even her own speech speeding up. “Look, it's one of these plastic typing things that have been falling down here for a few years now! And this one looks like it's good condition, see? It's been relatively shielded from the water! And here, it's a bit oily, but that could have protected it better actually. And yeah the casing is discoloured but there's no breaks or full cracks in the plastic, only a few scratches. I might be able to fix this!”

“That would be a first,” Bratty commented, but the curiosity in her eyes betrayed her. She wasn’t as uncaring about this as she pretended to be. “How much could you sell it for?”

“Yeah, like, is it really valuable?” Catty added. 

Alphys sighed internally. Fine, she had to be honest with herself here. She'd probably never make scientists out of Bratty and Catty. 

“A l-lot,” she told them. “Even if it c-can’t be fixed, the undamaged parts are v-very valuable for scientific p-purposes, but if I can f-fix it then it'd be the first time and that would make it unique.”

“Whoa,” Catty sighs. 

“Why do we never find stuff like that?” Bratty asks enviously. 

Alphys can't even blame her. Trying to bolster pocket money via upselling garbage was pretty common so it was necessary to make good finds for it to be worth it. 

“What do you have? M-maybe I can show you how to c-clean it so you can get m-more for it while we go home,” Alphys suggested. The other girls excitedly shoved their finds in her face, and she spent a while giving them pointers on what they could easily clean and what not, and also how they might find more valuable stuff in the dump. That conversation lasted them all the way back to Hotland, where Alphys brought them to their homes before she returned to her own. 

There, she began to carefully unpack her own prizes. 

It had been a good haul, she decided. Apart from the computer in relatively good condition, she had also found three manga who were soggy from water but without much dirt on them and with the printing still intact, the papers with what she thought were circuits on them, a whole bunch of scrap metal and cables, a broken toaster, a lone screwdriver, and several human candy bars still in their undamaged plastic packaging. 

The latter she put aside for later, not wanting to deal with the complications of digesting human food right now. The manga and the circuit papers she hung up at her window where the heat and the faint up draft from the magma boiling below would dry them in no time. The scrap metal she set aside to clean later, save for the pieces that were rusty, which she put into a bath of white vinegar to set for a couple of hours. 

With all of that done, it was time for her ultimate prize. 

The computer. 

It was an older model she decided quickly when she compared it to the other ones she had pulled out of the garbage and stored in various nooks and crannies of her workshop. The similarity to a typewriter gave it away - the newer models had the writing component separate, connectable to the actual computer with a cable. She didn't quite understand why humans built computers with all parts attached first and _then_ switched to having all parts separate, which made the whole machine bulkier and messier to connect and transport. It seemed like the logical progression should be the other way around. 

Would she ever understand why humans did what they did?

Who knew, maybe if she fixed this computer she would get some hints… 

Alphys began by placing it on a plastic mat to protect it from scratches and the table from the oily dirt. She unscrewed the screw holding the casing together, carefully prying the plastic pieces apart. It was sticky, the residue from the oil holding the dirt on it in place, making it disgustingly sticky and filthy to touch. Still, she’d had to wipe worse off some of the stuff she pulled out of the garbage, so it was fine. On the inside of the casing, the first thing that stood out to her was the logic board looked almost as good as she hoped. It had some scratches and small cracks, but nothing irreparable. When she unscrewed the board and pulled it away though, she almost recoiled from the large patch of corrosion that affected the protective sheet of metal separating the board from the casing, as well as the casing itself. It was a dark, brownish red, and covered a good third of both the shield and the casing. 

Disappointment spread through her soul. With that level of corrosion on the metal sheet, it might have affected the logic board negatively after all. That would be a shame, when the rest of it looked so good. Still, no reason to give up yet. Even if it wasn’t completely salvageable, she might be able to save some of the parts at least. 

Unfortunately, the board was soldered to the metal sheet, meaning she had to go through the effort to desolder it. Not that she didn’t have enough strength to just pry it apart, but that might have caused further damage. She could smell the oil burning when she did, thick and acrid and stinging her nostrils. 

Between the metal sheet and the board she found a piece of cardboard, probably for isolation or something, but unfortunately it was completely soaked in oil. She’d have to find a replacement for that. Maybe the regular paper monsters made out of reed grass would be good enough? It tended to be rather sturdy even if it wasn’t actually cardboard. She’d try before she went with cardboard; reed grass paper was a lot easier and cheaper to come by than human-made cardboard. That tended to be a rarity due to all of it being waterlogged and difficult to dry and straighten after falling down here. 

On the bright side though, the oil in the cardboard seemed to have done what she’d hoped when she first saw the oily machine. There was no corrosion on the logic board itself, only more dirt, but that could be cleaned away. 

Promising, very promising. 

She set the board aside for now, placing it on an old, ratty towel to protect it from further damage. Then she proceeded to separate the keyboard mechanism from the top casing. with that, she had all the parts separate and could focus on cleaning them. 

It was tempting to jump right in and begin with the keyboard and logic board right away, but the plastic casing would need longer to soak and was less fiddly to work with, so she did the sensible thing and began with that. A large tub with a mixture of warm water and vinegar was quickly prepared and the casing pieces lowered inside. She wasn’t sure how long it would have to soak; with that level of corrosion in there and with all the oil it would need several hours for sure, if not a day or two. She’d have to see how it looked later. The metal sheet… from the way it looked like, she’d probably have to file off the corrosion there, it was that bad. That really could wait for later though. But now that was taken care of, she could finally look at the core components like she really wanted to. 

First things first, she’d have to get the oil off the logic board. As useful as the oil had been protecting the electronics from harm, in order to get this thing operational she’d have to clean it off. She considered the shelf above her work station. It had several boxes with spare parts and tools, in addition to the main tools dangling from hooks below it, but most importantly right now, there was a row of cans up there with different cleaning products. 

They were some of her more prized possessions, all pulled from the trash by her or purchased from professional garbage recyclers for a decent amount of cash. Some of those contained chemicals that weren’t possible to recreate underground yet. They were valuable for their rarity alone, but also for their usefulness in electronics and mechanical work. The bulk of those would be sold to the labs, so it was lucky that Alphys got to purchase some at all. 

After several moments of considerations, she finally pulled one can off the shelf. 

It was break cleaner, which as far as Alphys could tell, was originally meant to help clean parts of human cars. It did a good job getting oil off from other materials too though and had already proven itself in some of her projects. She already knew that it was safe to use on the delicate circuitry of computer boards from earlier experiments, so she didn’t hesitate to spray the cleaner onto the board. It got rid of the oil in a matter of seconds. Once it was sprayed with water to get the rest of the cleaner off and dried with the cold setting of a hairdryer she had pilfered for this purpose, it was as good as new. 

It still wouldn’t hurt to let it dry a little more though, so in the meantime she took care of the keyboard mechanism. 

She plucked all the individual keys off and began cleaning them individually with a water and vinegar solution. Letting them soak was an option, but the oil residue wasn’t quite as bad on them as they were on the plastic casing, so this was fine. It would also allow her to be able to use them faster. Once the keys were done she continued with the mat and the plungers that had held them in place. Doing this, she discovered that two of the plungers were broken. Did she have a replacement? She found one in one of her boxes for spare parts, but wasn’t sure what to do about the other one. Maybe she’d have to mold one, but she didn’t feel like doing that now. For now she’d just leave one key out that wasn’t essential to operating the machine. The capslock or up arrow key perhaps. 

Cleaned and dried, the key popped right back down onto their designated places. It would be nice to test it, but since she had never gotten one of the machines she found to work fully, that wasn’t possible. 

Back to more cleaning. 

Using the logic board without the metal sheet protecting it might be risky, so that came first. As she thought, her usual cleaners weren’t an option because they might make the corrosion worse. She was able to get some of it off by using a wire brush and some bruteforce. The effort made her sweat, but it did get a lot of the worst corrosion off. There were some delicate parts she couldn’t do that with though. What to do? And she needed a replacement for the cardboard that was meant to go between the sheet and the board too…

As her eyes roamed over her workshop, Alphys suddenly got an idea. 

Could she…? 

She had read that humans did this _all the time_ though! For all sorts of things! 

Yeah! Why not. It would prevent the pins on the back of the board from touching the metal sheet, so it should help prevent any short circuiting. With newfound resolution, she took a role of vinyl tape and began covering the metal sheet in it, cutting it to size as she went along. Soon, the shield was covered. The tape held easily. Perfect. She felt proud for having come up with that!

Now if only it worked. 

It was time to tackle the logic board. 

She hooked it up to a power source and one of her repaired monitors. Then she flipped the switch at the side of the board and anxiously watched the monitor flicker to life. 

Come on, she thought, willing the thing to work with the force of her thoughts and soul. Come on, please work… 

The screen finally settled and showed a jumbled mess of colours flickering over each other. Alphys bit her lower lip, taking in what she saw with mounting excitement. 

This was new!

This was more than she’d gotten from any other machine so far. The others had either left the monitor completely dark or half dark and half bright with static, without any changes no matter what she did. 

Which meant that the flaw was likely something smaller! Something she might be able to fix! Possibilities bloomed before her inner eye along with daydreams of winning prizes and being elevated to the status of royal scientist. Well, that probably wouldn’t happen. While getting a human computer to work would be a great achievement that would likely open up new discoveries for monsterkind, she doubted they would learn enough for her to get that kind of important position from it. They already had some older computers working already after all, with punch cards and magnetic bands. She couldn’t imagine that these models with electric chips would make that much of a difference. 

But still. 

It would show what she could do. That she was good at this. And maybe… 

Alphys had been working with Mettaton on ideas for a body for him recently. They’d had some trouble with it because most of what they came up with was terribly bulky - gears or punch cards or magnetic tape, they all had their issues. But if she were able to use something like these chips, well. She’d be able to compress a lot of it, and maybe there were some new functions here that would make it easier for them to build the kind of robot body Mettaton truly dreamed of. Currently that just wasn’t achievable, but if she managed… who knew. She’d like helping her friend like that. He was the only other monster she knew who was so unabashedly a fan of human culture. 

She disconnected the board and began a closer inspection of which parts of it might need fixing. There were some connectors that she felt looked too old and scrappy, so she put in new ones instead. Some of the scratches had disrupted the connections between the chips, so she soldered on some bridges to reestablish the pathways. Some of the delicate metal pins on the chips were bent out of shape and not all of the ports had proper connectivity. Delicate work.

After hours of sitting bent over her workbench, she reconnected the board, only to groan immediately when she saw the screen. 

No change. 

Why?!

She fixed everything she could see!

… so it was something she couldn't easily see from the outside, meaning that due to the fact that she had no idea how the computer was meat to function properly, she didn't even know where to start. 

Frustrated by her lack of progress in spite of all her effort, Alphys stood up stretched, grunting when her body ached from the sudden change of position after hours of sitting immobile. Her magic prickled on her back and neck, and on her joints. Her chest felt hollow too, she was hungry. How long had she been sitting there, cleaning and soldering and fixing and testing? 

Almost ten hours, according her wall clock. 

Whoops. 

Well, no matter, she had some leftovers to warm up. While those were in the battered microwave she fixed up for herself, she took a look at some of her other finds that she neglected in favour of the computer before. 

Specifically, the papers with the schematics on them. They were stapled together into some sort of booklet, already dried thanks to the heated winds at her window. The manga were dry too, but she was still in her work mindset, so she preferred to look at the schematics for now while she ate. They would make for a good meal lecture. 

Alphys absent-mindedly spooned her food into her mouth, barely taking note of what she ate. The circuits depicted consumed all of her attention. They seemed familiar to her, so she tried to figure out where she had seen them for, finally scanning the writing to see what it described instead of trying to figure it out from the schematics alone - 

_Wait._

These weren’t just random circuits depicted on the papers… these were data sheets. These showed components of a machine, what they did and where they went and how to troubleshoot them - and they… 

Her eyes slid up, quickly flicking up and down between the papers in her hands and the logic board. 

They matched. 

_They matched._

These were the original data sheets from this very computer. An instruction manual not just for the end-user, but for the engineers. 

She jumped up as if all the fires of Hotland were chasing her. Her meal was forgotten. It didn’t matter anymore, not compared to this. 

Frantically, she paged through the manual, looking up different methods for troubleshooting certain issues with the computer. It was there, it was all there, she read it over and learned how the chips were supposed to function and connect to each other, what kind of role they had in relation to each other and how they would work together to perform operations. It was all suddenly so easy. It made sense. Instead of guessing and second guessing and reverse engineering everything she could simply… read it. 

Her mind already hastened tree to ten steps ahead. With this, she would easily be able to build the robot body Mettaton wanted, she could put so many operations on these small chips, no need to carry around punch cards or magnetic tape either, the computer _programmed programmes_ , it was brilliant, it had so many possibilities… 

It was huge. Possibly one of the biggest discoveries for the underground in this decade. Perhaps even this era. 

But then it wasn’t really a discovery in the sense of figuring it out. It was just… happening to be at the right place at the right time and then reading a manual. 

If she build a robotic body for Mettaton though, with the discovery of how these computer chips worked only being a _minor_ part of an even greater achievement… that would be something different altogether. Right? She’d have to work on these computers a lot before that could happen. She’d have to understand the code, would have to know how to execute programmes, maybe she’d even have to write her own. That was sure to prove that she had what it took to be up there as an engineer. 

Was she selfish, for thinking that way? 

She had been trying so hard to prove herself though, only to never really get the opportunity to. Even though she was good at this. Repairing and building things was a deep part of her and one she genuinely excelled at. It was what she was meant to do. She could feel that in her soul. What if this was her only chance?

What if this was… her destiny? 

Her hands shook when she moved over to her telephone. She picked up the receiver and began to turn the rotary dial, one number at a time, listening to the whirr and clicks of the small plastic piece. 

Her own breath sounded loud to her and when the receiver was picked up on the other side, she wasn't able to speak for a moment. 

One moment where her decision hung in the air.

“M-Mettaton…? I… I think I found something… do you want to come over?”


	10. Ghost in the Machine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check the bottom notes for a mild content warning, otherwise have fun with some fluffy Mettaton content :D 
> 
> [On my tumblr, you can regularly vote for which fic I should continue next!](https://rehlia.tumblr.com/)

His eyes opened with a soft whirr and click that he thought only he could hear, and the movement of the lids felt at once heavy and fantastically light. 

He never had lids to move before, not physical ones, so they felt heavy. 

They were exceptionally well-built, so they felt light. 

It probably should be confusing, but his family had told him about this, so all Mettaton felt was wonder and excitement. 

He had a body. 

All of his own, more so than any other ghost ever had a body of his own, because this one was custom-built for him by a specialist capably of paying attention to even the smallest details that he wanted included. Having friends create bodies, that has happened before. But the sheer capability that went into this form, the craftsmanship and knowledge and creativity, the sheer innovation of it all - Mettaon was sure that it hadn’t been done before on this scale. 

The mechanical lenses built to be his eyes focused as soon as he stopped getting lost in his own thoughts, blink-blink-blinking as if his eyes needed the movement, as if he was flesh and blood, and the face of his friend was the first thing he sees. Fitting. She looked worried and hopeful, but the worry was more pronounced. That was pretty normal for her, but Mettaton could see it was more than just the usual anxiety. 

“A-are you okay in there?! Oh gosh. Wait. Can you even speak yet? Blink once - once to say yes, and t-twice to say - “

“I can speak, darling, no worries. It’s all good.”

“Oh. Oh, o-okay. Good. Whew! Hahaha!” Alphys’ face shifted a little in his field of vision, likely because she was stepping nervously from one foot to the other. “Uhm… What does it… feel like…?”

Mettaton took a breath to answer her and paused. He was breathing, as if he needed it - an action that he could feel drew in ambient raw magic from the air to fuel his soul. He had never done this by breathing either. As a ghost, any ambient magic would simply seep into him as he floated by. The action was so natural too, entirely subconscious until he brought his attention to it, the programming Alphys had put into this marvel of technology taking over basic functions so he wouldn't have to micromanage them all by himself. He _could_ have micromanage them, he could feel that, his soul would override any programmed responses if he wanted it to. But if he didn't want to, then a lot of what would make him appear like any regular fleshy monster, or like any human for that matter, would be happening even without his input. He would breathe, blink, his body would shift a little in search for a more comfortable resting position. He could taste metal on his new, artificial tongue, he could smell disinfectant and motor oil in the air, he could feel the fine grain of the wooden surface of Alphys’ work table under the tips of his new fingers, could feel the hardness of it pressing against his frame where it rested on the legs and back and his head. His hair tickled his face, shifting with each breath he drew. Deep inside of him, his mechanical parts were toiling, humming with electricity, pumping away with their pistons. 

As if he had a heartbeat. 

Of course Mettaton had no idea if humans would notice their own heartbeat like that. So far he only saw it mentioned in romantic movies when two humans listened to each other's heartbeat on their chests, which he always found terribly romantic. 

But it was nice to imagine he might have that in common with humans now. 

Very, very nice. 

“It feels wonderful,” he finally replied, freeing Alphys from her increasingly apparent minor nervous breakdown. “Absolutely wonderful! Can I move it? Is it ready to stand up yet?”

He knew better than to simply try and hop off the table after what happened last time. 

“U-uhm… not for long. The battery isn't big enough to really… last?” Alphys stuttered. “But you can try for a couple of minutes. N-not more than five, though.”

“And then it will stop?”

“Not exactly. You see I considered the immediate dangers of the body simply stopping what with it potentially falling and breaking or worst of all falling into a crack or lava moat and breaking and then what would happen to you?? So I managed to integrate the previous temporary body into this newer model as a basic energy saving mode, so as soon as the power runs out in this form you will automatically revert into the previous form but of course we might still have to figure out exactly when the energy saving mode should kick in so you'll have enough time and power left to get yourself to an outlet to recharge but yeah it's basically going to be a quick shift of the mechanical components so they'll rearrange themselves - “ And here Alphys took a huge, huge breath after her rapid, rambling Waterfall of words. 

“I understand,” Mettaton told her quickly, before her love for mechanics could fully turn over and turn this into a monologue of several hours. “That's a very clever design choice, my dear. Thank you for explaining it.”

“Uh, s-sure.”

“I'll try now.”

Mettaton’s excitement felt like a spark of electricity straight to his soul. He had waited so long for this. He pushed his upper body up with is arms, bringing himself into a sitting position. When Alphys had still been working on it, he had frequently observed and commented, given ideas and suggestions and wishes, so he had seen the body before. This was the first time he saw it from this perspective, as a body of his own. His chest plate looked wide from this angle, the waist slim and almost fragile with his glass casing from where his soul was softly shining its white light. His legs, shapely and strong. It was easy to flex them, swing them off the table and find a balance there as he lifted himself off the wooden surface and onto the floor. 

At least at first. 

The second he stood up by himself though, he was suddenly gripped by a deep-seated sense of panic. Had… had the floor always been so far down? He knew for a fact he had been floating this high up before, but that had been floating! These two legs, as beautifully strong and shapely as they were, suddenly seemed really inadequate to provide proper balance for something as involved as standing and walking. Which he had never done before either - he had only ever observed others do it. 

Of course he couldn’t be afraid though. He might have been shy sometimes as a ghost before, but now that he had a body? Those times were over! 

He took a step, a simple and straightforward movement. It wasn’t anything special, but it worked. 

Mettaton honestly half-expected to fall, but his body knew what it was doing. It provided the balance that he innately lacked, stabilised him where he would have normally overbalanced. He could tell where his own control voluntarily ended and the programming Alphys had provided kicked in, and as with the breathing, he could have intervened, but he didn’t want to. It made everything so easy. He could allow the machinery to support him until he had learned to do this himself, until the movement had become truly subconscious for his soul as well, and then he would be able to add the _swagger_... 

He took another step, and another, walking through the whole length of the workshop, then he turned on one of his heels, put his hands on his hips, and walked back, definitely trying to strut now. With increased control came a bit of insecurity, but it still ended up working out. 

It was fantastic. 

Brilliant!

He was walking! His own legs, and he was using them so easily, as if it was nothing, they were his and always would be his - 

Goodness, what was he doing, going crazy over walking and having legs? (Even if, he really had to repeat it, they were some very fine legs!) He hadn’t even seen his own face yet! Not like this, not with him animating it, he had to, he had to!! 

As quick as the subroutines that controlled his walking cycle allowed it, he hurried over to the workstation and grabbed the hand mirror laying there, holding it up in front of him. 

The sight of a face that he wasn’t used to seeing in the mirror, that moved fluidly with his own expressions anyway, was a shock that initially made him flinch. Gone was the soft, rounded plane that used to be his face while he was still an incorporeal ghost. Now, he had solid features crafted detail for detail to resemble those of his favourite humans. A fine jawline, a full mouth with equally full lips, large and dark eyes with dramatic lashes, a cute little button nose and strong eyebrows. A long lock of his fringe swept dramatically over one eye, the silky texture of the hair practically flowing all by itself, as if wafted by an invisible breeze. Only two lines with a row of tiny screws where the metal of his face had been put together interrupted the extremely realistic look of his face. That, and the white colour, but he had wanted to remain pale like that. It seemed more like him. 

His eyes widened and his mouth curled into a smile. He pursed his lips, blew himself a kiss. His lids dropped as he assumed a suggestive expression, full of promises. 

“Darling,” he finally whispered. “Darling, this is…” 

Just as he was deciding which word to use, a hissing sound emanated from his body. He shrieked as he felt his limbs and the metal of his core shift, everything folding and rearranging in ways he had no control over no matter how much his soul screamed for it to stop. For a moment, the beautiful face in the mirror became a mess of gears and metal plates and cables as it inverted and folded into other parts of itself like some sort of horrifying origami. He suddenly wished the mirror wasn’t held so steady in his hands, which were the only things not shifting. 

Finally it was over. 

Instead of the simulacrum of a human, a metal box with a rectangular display looked back at him from the mirror. 

“Uh, that…. was the battery… “ Alphys sighed. “The energy saving mode kicked in. Sorry…”

“ _Well._ ”

“M… mettaton…?” 

“That was utterly horrifying.”

“Oh gosh, I knew it wasn’t ready yet! I’m so sorry! I knew I should have built it better. You hate it, don’t you? I-it’s okay. I k-know the movements could be more… and the face… and - “

“Oh goodness, no, not the body! Just the final bit with the…” Mettaton stopped, had to stop himself. “With the part where I’m suddenly trapped in here while everything collapses inwards.” 

“Oh. Oh!! Gosh.”

“Yes. Seeing a face fall apart leaves a rather…. unfortunate impression I’m afraid.” 

“I’m… I’m sorry about that. I didn’t even think about that…” 

“You can cover that up though, right?” 

“I… y-yes, probably, I could… there’s already a bit of steam emerging with the shifting, for cooling purposes, I could probably reroute it and intensify it a little so it covers most of the visible parts while you change.” Alphys looked him up and down as she spoke, pushing her glasses back up. She was clearly already half-way back into making plans, drawing up blueprints in her mind as she considered the changes she would make. 

“Then I have only one more final thing to say,” Mettaton declared, briefly crossing his arms in front of his boxy body. 

Alphys gulped as her attention snapped back to him properly. 

He rolled forwards. The cameras he could use to see in this form didn’t look like eyes, nor did his front have anything resembling a face with expressions, so he had nothing to give her she could look at. The simplified emoji symbols he could make with his screen simply wouldn’t be adequate for this. But of course he still had other means of expressing himself. 

“ _Thank you_ ,” he told her with all the gratitude he could put into his voice, and wrapped his arms around her. 

She squeaked initially, trembled, but within a few seconds, she was first hesitantly and then enthusiastically returning the hug. 

“You’re welcome.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning for mild body horror; Mettaton sees his own face collapse inwards and shift as his robot body goes into automatic energy saving mode for the first time while he looks into a mirror. Not graphic, but warning just in case because it freaks him out a bit^^

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter is pretty dark - no pun intended - but I promise they won't all be like that. It's just the nature of the banishment that's pretty grim, but there will be happier times ahead too, promise^^


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